Family-owned watch business Michel Herbelin is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year and is using the landmark to modernize its brand image by dropping Michel — the first name of the French company’s founder — from its dials.
HERBELIN, as we must now call it, says its new identity “carries with it a desire to promote French elegance, refinement and watchmaking expertise more than ever before”.
In a nod to its history, the HERBELIN marque is given the subtitle: Horloger Contemporain depuis 1947.
HERBELIN is now run by grandsons of the founder, Maxime and Mathieu Herbelin, along with family members Cédric Gomez-Montiel and Benjamin Theurillat.
The business is proudly French, and the family welcomes customers and partners to its studio and workshop in Charquemont, nestled in the Jura Mountains just over the border from Switzerland.
“Here, authenticity goes hand in hand with boldness and a love of beauty and movement. That is what it means to be a timekeeper in the French style,” the company says.
All of its watches are designed and assembled by hand at the brand’s Franche-Comté workshops using Swiss movements.
Building on its French heritage, HERBELIN is opening its first boutique in the world this summer with a store on rue Bonaparte in the heart of the artisan Left Bank of Paris.
