The Britain Icon Check Limited Edition
Burberry offers its checks on a range of skeletonized and diamond-studded pieces
The British brand’s watches – produced by an American watchmaking group – gamble on the Swiss Made label and on developing its in-house production.
By Marco Cattaneo
Journalist
The dials of the pieces in the Burberry’s Britain Icon Check Collection feature the same signature checks that the brand uses on the lining of the world’s oldest trench coat, created by Thomas Burberry in 1914. As suggested by its name, the trench coat was originally designed for the trenches of World War I, but it became an icon and has long been part of the fashion world. It thus made perfect sense that Burberry used some elements of its design on its new timepieces.
A limited range of 20 pieces
The mechanical movement that drives the 20 pieces in the men’s version of the Britain Icon Check collection is a modified ETA 2824. Its circular graining is visible through the interlacing of the check pattern that acts as the dial.
Its treated sapphire and “Côtes de Genève” decorations give the whole set a very convincing look and the anthracite DLC-treated titanium contrasts only slightly with the 45-mm case and the movement itself. The piece is water resistant to 50 meters and comes with a black alligator strap that closes with a deployment buckle.
The ladies’ version is a customized limited-piece range. The 245 diamonds set on the mother-of-pearl dial form the famous “check”. The 38-mm pink gold piece is decorated with more than two carats including the 124 stones on the bezel. As is customary with self-winding Burberry watches, the check pattern also adorns the oscillating mass. And yet, lying at the heart of the watch with its swan neck, the caliber STP 3-13 is the true surprise. This piece uses indexes and improves the gauging of the movement’s amplitude. It may not be a great complication per sebut it is a first for the Ticino-based Swiss Technology Production (STP), which has been owned by the American group Fossil since 2012. Fossil has a license for the production of Burberry watches and for another fifteen fashion brands such as Emporio Armani, DKNY, and Marc by Marc Jacobs.
Swiss Made: a strategy
Its over $3M yearly turnover and its two-digit growth rate over the last few years make Fossil the world’s fourth largest watchmaking group. While the group makes most of its money with quartz watches produced in China that are sold for up to a few hundred Swiss Francs, it has also established a true industrial strategy based on mechanical watchmaking and the “Swiss Made” label. Indeed, the group has made huge investments to acquire and develop new production units and not just in its European headquarters in Basel. Consequently, it offers its services to high-end brands for which watches represent more than just a fashion accessory. Burberry watches are 100% mechanical and with its Swiss Made range, Emporio Armani also follows a strategy to become a high-end brand.
Even if it still depends largely on its ETA movements, the Fossil group can henceforth produce entirely in-house Swiss Made pieces thanks to the three sites it owns.
The first one is located at “Antima Montres” in Bienne. It was acquired in the early 2000s and it is there where the designing, development and prototyping take place. The second one is in Glovelier, in the Jura, where the company Swiss Technology Components ensures the production of components. The third one is at STP in Ticino where new calibers that feature the division’s most traditional codes in the form of circular-grained bridges and plates decorated with “Côtes de Genève” are produced.