Bernhard Lederer

Born in Germany in 1958, Bernhard Lederer trained as a watchmaker before moving to Switzerland in the early 1980s, where he founded BLU (Bernhard Lederer Universe) in Geneva. He became a founding member of the AHCI in 1985, making him one of its earliest figures in independent watchmaking. His watches under the BLU name were produced in small numbers but stood out for their originality, often rethinking how time could be read. After a quieter period, he re-emerged in 2020 with the Central Impulse Chronometer, using a double-gear train and independent escapements linked by a central remontoir. The watch won the GPHG Innovation Prize in 2021 and the GPHG Chronometry Prize in 2024 for the Triple Certified Observatory Chronometer. Lederer became the first AHCI member welcomed into the Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie.