Hands-On The Berneron Mirage 38 Miroir & A Conversation With Its Maker

Few young independents have earned their reputation as quickly as Sylvain Berneron. 

For anyone unfamiliar with his story, it was only after starting his design career in the automotive world – working for the likes of BMW, Porsche, and Ducati – that the 34-year-old Frenchman entered the watch industry with a role at IWC. He then joined Breitling, where he served as the creative director for five years, before eventually being promoted to chief product officer, and only after that role did he make the decision to step out on his own.

When Berneron set up his eponymous watchmaking firm in 2022, he built the brand around an unusual premise – one that dictated what would become his debut collection, the Mirage. That premise was that the movement should decide the shape of the watch, not the other way round. As a result, the first Mirage, unveiled in 2023, came with an aesthetic that riffed on shapely cult classics like the Cartier Crash and Patek Philippe references designed by Gilbert Albert. 

This initial collection was later bolstered by the achingly compact 34mm Mirage references with stone dials, which included a uniquely hand-carved small seconds, without losing the unique language that captured the attention of countless collectors around the world. The arrival of the Mirage collections was perfectly timed to build on a fresh enthusiasm for shaped watches and collectors’ newfound love of semi-precious stone dials, while also delivering on Berneron’s original off-kilter premise for the brand.

Since these initial launches, scarcity has done wild things to the resale value of Berneron watches, and when a Mirage first crossed the auction block, a Prussian Blue example offered by Phillips in Geneva changed hands for CHF 241,300 against an estimate of CHF 40,000 to CHF 80,000. This result was close to five times the retail price and with a multiple against its reserve typically reserved for legacy names in watchmaking, which is a market-grounded way of telling you how far demand has outrun the tiny supply of Berneron watches. The brand has tapped into something special, that’s for sure.

Today, the Mirage 38 Miroir, released in white or yellow gold, takes that same founding idea and reshapes it through an inverted movement. This concept might sound simple, but it’s actually much more complex than you might expect, to the point that its creation necessitated a new movement in the Calibre 283. 

“It took us 18 months to develop the movement, and we reused only 20% of the existing components – mainly the barrel and the winding assembly. All the rest is new. I guess this is why nobody does mirrored movements, as it’s as energy-consuming as making an entirely new one, but I find the idea very cool,” says Sylvain with a knowing smile. As a weighty bonus, Sylvain Berneron has also developed a broad, non-tapering bracelet in solid gold.

Seeing the passion of Sylvain Berneron on the release day of the Mirage 38 Miroir offers a window into exactly why so many collectors are drawn to the young brand. “I didn't want to do a skeleton or simply reverse the movement, and this is the reason we came up with an entirely new movement architecture,” he tells me as he hands me the watch. “It would have been a much easier path to do a black, a blue, or a green dial version of the same watch, but in the long run I think that's a dilution of brand equity. Bringing an openworked Mirage on a metal bracelet, on the other hand, is building upon that base.”

Sitting with him with the unusually broad bracelet hugging my wrist with a comforting, bracelet-like warmth, I couldn’t help feel a pang of resistance when I needed to take it off. While the covers were pulled off this bracelet and the new Calibre 283 with the debut of the Mirage 38 Miroir, they weren’t necessarily made to be released together.

“They were two separate ideas, because I had the ambition to offer the metal bracelet on the original pieces too, he explains. “To be honest, I didn't have the cash to develop and manufacture a gold bracelet four years ago, [because] they are extremely cash-intensive, so I wanted to wait for chapter two”

With the slim 38mm watch on the wrist, you begin to notice the smaller details on the dial that make it legible despite its immediately obvious complexity. Around the dial’s circumference are a dozen details – engraved elements, breaks between bridge sections, level changes within the movement itself – that can stand in for hour markers, literally allowing the asymmetric design to read the time. The movement itself is unusually crafted from solid gold, and the charming scimitar-curved hands are stacked in reverse, with hours on top and minutes below.

Combined, these elements allow the watch to become something new entirely, with the biggest visual shift being the difference between the compact case and the weighty but supple bracelet (whose seven rows are said to absorb around 150 hours of hand-finishing). There is a slight mismatch between the dominant bracelet and the svelte case, though I will easily admit to preferring it over the alternative Mirage Miroir on a soft leather strap. This latter option underlines the strength of the case and movement, but the presence and jewel-like finish of the watch on the bracelet cements the Mirage Miroir as a truly special watch.

The Mirage Miroir is available on either a bracelet or a Barenia leather strap, and first deliveries are set for October 2027. It’s priced at CHF 72,500 (ex. VAT) on leather and CHF 130,250 (ex. VAT) on the gold bracelet.

Brand: Berneron
Model: Mirage 38 Miroir
Case Dimensions: 38 x 34 x 7mm
Lug-to-Lug: 42mm
Case Material: 18K white or yellow gold, part of a full gold construction that includes hands, buckle, spring bars and movement
Crystal: Hesalite with scratch-resistant coating
Dial: The mirrored Calibre 283 and its sector guilloche serve as a dial of sorts
Water Resistance: 30 metres (3 ATM)
Strap/Bracelet: 18K gold multi-link bracelet, or 20-16mm Barenia leather

Calibre: Berneron Cal. 283 (mirrored construction, echoing Cal. 233)
Dimensions: 30.0 x 28.0 x 2.83mm
Complication: Inverted hand set (hour hand on top)
Components: 135
Jewels: 17
Escapement: Traditional Swiss lever, free-sprung balance wheel
Frequency: 21,600 vph (3Hz)
Power Reserve: 72 hours (3 days)
Decoration: Guillochage (bridges), colimaconnage (crown wheel), laser engraving (barrel), anglage (bridges), cerclage (balance bridge), traits tires (cliquet), nuagage (bridge pocket)

Price: CHF 72,500 (ex. VAT) on leather; CHF 130,250 (ex. VAT) on 18K gold bracelet
Delivery: First deliveries in October 2027, at 36 pieces per colour per year, for 10 years
Limited Edition: Series production of 24 pieces per year

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