"Pavel Bure": The first mass watch production in Russia. Pavel Bure watches Trading house "Pavel Bure"

The Pavel Bure watch is an antique; the cost of some pieces is exorbitant. The factory has been producing high quality Swiss watches since the 19th century. At one time they were suppliers to the emperor's court, but they were often involved in mass production. Rare watches were made from precious metals using enamel.

History of the watch factory

Official sources claim that the history of the company dates back to 1815. However, this date is not confirmed by anything, except for the fact that at this time Karl Bure and his son moved from Revel to St. Petersburg. There is an entry in the reference book about merchants where Karl Bure is mentioned, it is dated 1865 and indicates that Karl was a Revel guild. At that time, the Breguet company was widespread, supplying the nobility with high-quality Swiss watches. Therefore, it is difficult to say with certainty that Bure were engaged in the manufacture of watches at that time.

The inscription on the watch “Pavel Bure”

After graduating from college, Pavel Bure became his father’s partner. In 1874, he bought a watch factory in Switzerland in the town of Le Locle. This year is the actual start date of watch production. In 1880, Pavel Bure became an appraiser in the emperor’s office, which made it possible to depict the coat of arms on the display window.

He did not receive much profit from the sale of his products, because the market for Swiss watches was Russian Empire was occupied by other companies, including: Moser, Tissot and Patek Philippe.

Trading house "Pavel Bure"

The history of the company, whose watches were so popular that the history of the watch industry is unthinkable without them, began in 1988 with the sale of the company to Pfund and Girard. They founded the Pavel Bure trading house, and at that time their enterprise had a small authorized capital, only 30,000 rubles. They quickly gained popularity and developed. The main reason for this was not the quality of the product, but the cost. Pfund and Girard were helped to achieve this by a flaw in customs policy.

To save money, they transported disassembled watches across the Bure border, which reduced the amount of collection. Several workshops were founded in Russia, which began producing watches, assembling them from parts made in Switzerland.

Most of the assembly was done by women and they were paid little, resulting in a very low cost. It is interesting that it was this company that could be said to be responsible for the beginning of mass production of watches. They produced them in large quantities, but in parallel with this, they were engaged in the manufacture of watches to order.

During times Alexandra III most of the watches that were purchased by His Cabinet Imperial Majesty, and also made to order for gifts from the emperor, there was a “Pavel Bure” watch. In 1899, the trading house became the official supplier of watches to the Imperial Court.

Watch "Pavel Bure"

With this title, the cost of watches also increased, including luxury ones, which were decorated with precious stones and made of gold and silver. In addition, the company was engaged in the production of souvenir watches, for example, railway and army watches. In 1916, the trading house received a patent for its own chronograph invention.

The company ceased its activities in 1917 due to the revolution and war. But the company stopped working only in Russia; it remained in Switzerland. U new government in the USSR it also enjoyed great success. In Lenin's office there was a round clock on the wall, and Stalin and Nikita Khrushchev also had pocket watches.

Since the company remained only in Switzerland, it has continued to actively develop. Having changed its logo to a Latin inscription, it became popular all over the world.

The cost of a watch now can be either small or huge, depending on what it was made for. Wristwatches produced for mass production are the cheapest. Personalized watches have a higher cost. And the most expensive are the watches made at one time for the emperor’s court as gifts for honored guests. They are decorated with precious stones and made of precious metals.

Pavel Pavlovich Bure became his father's partner at the age of 26. He studied at the Peter and Paul Commercial School and had a better idea than his father and grandfather of how to turn a workshop into a large business. He acquired a small watch factory in Le Locle, a town in the French part of Switzerland, which is often called the heart of the watch industry. After this investment, Bure's business went uphill: he became an appraiser in the emperor's cabinet, and this title allowed him to place the state emblem on the window of a watch store. A couple of years later he became a technician at the Hermitage and consul of the Venetian Republic. And in 1884, he finally received honorary title merchant of the first guild.

The business was actively developing, but for an unknown reason in 1888, Bure sold the factory to his companions, the Swiss Georg Pfund and the Frenchman Paul Girard, and he retired. Apparently, he left the business due to illness - he died four years later.

Pfund and Girard established the Pavel Bure trading house with an authorized capital of 30,000 rubles. There was no point in changing the name: the surname Bure gave the right to depict the Russian coat of arms on the clock. The new owners took advantage of flaws in Russian customs policy, which impose high duties only on finished products. For example, on a pocket watch, depending on the case, the duty ranged from 1 ruble 30 kopecks (in a steel case) to 6 rubles 30 kopecks (in a gold case), while for the same watch disassembled only 75 kopecks were charged per pound of parts . The partners opened several workshops in Russia to assemble watches from parts produced by the plant in Switzerland. They decided to reduce costs through child and female labor. For a 10-hour working day they were paid no more than 60 kopecks.

The Pavel Bure watches were inferior in quality to Tissot or Patek Philippe, but they cost only 2 rubles, and almost anyone could afford them. There were other models decorated with gold and diamonds, prices for which reached 750 rubles.

In 1899, the Pavel Bure Trading House became the official supplier of watches to the imperial court. By this time, the number of products manufactured by the factory for high-ranking persons of the Russian Empire was becoming enormous. This brought the company 50,000 - 60,000 rubles annually.

Thanks to the assortment suitable for a wide variety of audiences, the brand has become not only widely known, but also a true symbol of the era. For example, in Chekhov's works, the Bure clock is mentioned more than 20 times. And later they were mentioned by Ilf and Petrov in The Golden Calf.

After the revolution

After October revolution All watch workshops were nationalized and transferred to the Trust for Precision Mechanics. Pavel Bure's losses amounted to 7 million gold rubles, and the company also lost ten buildings.

But they managed to save the business: the main production was still located in Switzerland. When the headquarters were moved to Le Locle, work resumed. Despite the fact that the first years after the revolution were difficult due to the loss Russian market, “Bure” managed to become one of the leading Swiss watch companies, and later seriously increase the geography of product supplies.

The Soviet government liked Bure products no less than the imperial court. The wall clock “Pavel Bure” hung in the Kremlin office of V.I. Lenin. Joseph Stalin and Nikita Khrushchev also had pocket watches from Bure.

The history of the Bure watch company began in 1815 in St. Petersburg, where Karl Bure moved from Revel with his son. Pavel Karlovich grew up with his father's watch business and over time became an assistant and successor to his business. In the Reference Book on Merchants of 1865, Pavel Karlovich Bure is mentioned as “a Revel guild worker, 55 years old, a merchant since 1839.” At the request of the Dukes of Leuchtenberg, their Imperial Highnesses Princes Eugene and Sergei Maximilianovich, in 1876, Pavel Karlovich Bure was awarded the title of hereditary honorary citizen “for the conscientious and diligent, while maintaining official interest, fulfillment since 1839 of the obligations assumed for the Court in Bose of the deceased Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna (daughter of Emperor Nicholas I) and at the Sergievskaya dacha.” His title and business were inherited by his eldest son, Pavel Pavlovich Bure, who graduated from the Peter and Paul Commercial School and became his father’s partner at the age of 26 in 1868. In 1874, he acquired a large watch factory in the heart of the Swiss watch industry, Locle. In 1880, he was an appraiser at the Cabinet of His Imperial Majesty. This title gave the right to have the state emblem on the display window. He is also a technician at the Imperial Hermitage and Consul of the Republic of Venezuela, supplier to the Supreme Court since 1879 and merchant of the 1st Guild since 1884. In the last thirty years before the revolution, the company became that “Paul Bure”, without whom a conversation about the history of Russian watchmaking is unthinkable. To expand the business, a store was opened in Moscow, and then in Kyiv. In 1899, the company was awarded the title Supplier of the Imperial Court.

During the reign of Alexander III (1881-1894), 3,477 gift watches worth 277,472 rubles were awarded from His Majesty’s Cabinet. The overwhelming number of them were from the Bure company. At the end of the 1890s, the company supplied watches worth 50-60 thousand rubles per year to the Imperial Court alone. In total, of the 15 thousand watches purchased through His Majesty’s Cabinet in the 30 pre-revolutionary years, more than 80 percent were “from Bure”. In the papers of His Majesty's Cabinet there are petitions from the Bure company for permission to import into Russia watches with the image of the state emblem on the cover. In the bureaucratic and artistic circles, they were as attentive to the price of gift Bure as they once were to the rank according to Peter’s Table of Ranks. Fyodor Chaliapin refused to accept the gold “Paul Bure”, given to him for his participation in a concert for the imperial family during the celebration of the 290th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty in 1903. The reason, as indicated by officials of His Majesty's Cabinet, is that the singer had the same watch for 150 rubles that he received at last year's concert. After the incident, the watch was sent “to increase in price”, and the gold case was decorated with rubies and diamonds. The cost rose to 450 rubles, and Fyodor Ivanovich accepted them. This is how archival documents interpret this episode. In his later memoirs, Fyodor Ivanovich presented his refusal of the tsar’s gift as a struggle against the rotten tsarist regime, and does not mention receiving a more expensive option. The singer’s expression is well known: “Only birds sing for free.” Nowadays, these Chaliapin watches are in the museums of the Moscow Kremlin, where they were given by the singer’s descendants. According to government orders, watches were also made in simple metal cases. It's about about prize army, railway watches and, of course, about the world's first real wristwatch. This watch was ordered by the Main Artillery Directorate in 1904 in connection with Russian-Japanese war. There were so many Pavel Bure watches that it is difficult to find a story from Russian life at the beginning of the last century where things would have happened without them. Walkers and chronographs, road watches and wall clocks from the presences, alarm clocks and golden repeaters - the whole history is literally riddled with references to “Pavel Storm”.

Not without the participation of writers, this name almost became a common noun. For example, in the works of Anton Pavlovich Chekhov alone, the “Bure Clock” appears more than 20 times. One can only be very surprised why a bold writer’s pen, like Pushkin’s, was not found, so that it was customary to write “bure” with a lowercase letter, like “breguet”. Connoisseurs of antique watches find it difficult to explain why Bure's watches were somehow better than the watches of other watch companies operating in Russia at the turn of the century. Some of them, like Bure, had their own factories in Russia, where watches were assembled from parts brought from abroad. However, neither Winter, nor Omega, nor even Moser could compete with the Bure company. The reasons must be sought in proper marketing, orientation towards high status, targeting the widest segment of buyers, and not only in the support of the Court and government orders. At that time, when watches turned from a luxury into a necessity, Pavel Bure sold watches for everyone. The Pavel Bure brand was also worn by medium-sized pocket watches in a simple metal case (of those assembled in the company’s own factories). Prices for Pavel Bure watches started at just two rubles. The company owned 50 percent of the Russian market for inexpensive watches. For wealthier buyers, the same mechanisms were inserted into silver and gold cases. Complex movements (repeaters, chronographs, calendars) were ordered from the most reputable watch companies in Switzerland. And in 1916, Pavel Bure received Swiss patent No. 74144 for a chronograph mechanism of its own design. The Pavel Bure watch received the highest awards at many national and international exhibitions, including the World Exhibitions in Paris: in 1889 - a silver medal, and in 1900 - a gold medal.

The revolution of 1917 put an end to the affairs of the Pavel Bure company in Russia. This cost the company 7 million gold rubles in losses and 10 buildings. It is symbolic that the “Pavel Bure” watch - gold (No. 88964, which served the emperor for almost a decade and a half) and silver marine - were with Nicholas II until his death in Yekaterinburg. The new government also liked the “Bure” watch. Chairman of the Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee Nikolai Podvoisky led the October revolution using gold pocket “Pavel Bure”, which was later called the Revolution Watch. In Vladimir Lenin’s office in the Kremlin, round wall “Bure” hung on the wall. For many years, Joseph Stalin and Nikita Khrushchev controlled the passage of time using pocket “Pavel Bure”. It should be noted that the Pavel Bure company did not end its existence in 1917. It was saved by the fact that the main production facilities were located in Switzerland. And with the transfer of the headquarters from Petrograd to Le Locle, Switzerland, normal work was resumed. Although the first years were very difficult, since the main sales market, the Russian one, was lost. But the company was able not only to survive, but also to significantly increase the geography of supplies and become one of the leading watch companies in Switzerland. In order for Pavel Bure watches to be recognized by consumers all over the world, the logo was changed from Cyrillic to Latin Paul Buhre. The watch was awarded more than 500 prizes from Swiss observatories for its precision and was successfully sold all over the world. For many years in the middle of the last century they were supplied to the English court. The brand returned to Russia in 2004 through the efforts of the Trading House to revive the traditions of watchmaker Pavel Karlovich Bure. And the very next year, in the year of the company’s 190th anniversary, the first new items were released under the revived brand, conveying the classic spirit of the company’s ancient masterpieces. Special attention is given to the high reliability and quality characteristic of the pre-revolutionary “Bure”. Only time-tested, best Swiss mechanics are installed in watches. Starting with the production of inexpensive models in steel cases, in just a few years the company included in its product range products in noble silver, gold and platinum with complex and unique calibers. And the interest with which new items “from Bure” were received by people of different generations in many countries of the world inspires confidence in the revival of another ancient tradition - telling the time by “Pavel Bure”.

V. Skurlov

The chronology of the amazing watch workshop of Pavel Bure begins in 1815, so far away today. The majestic city of St. Petersburg willingly accepted both Bure - father Karl and his son Pavel, who quickly matured in parallel with the rapid development of his father's business. Subsequently, Pavel Karlovich will become a faithful assistant, and then a continuer of his father’s fascinating craft.

Purchase of a watch factory

In turn, his son Pavel Pavlovich also did not stand aside. In 1874, he became the owner of a reputable watch manufactory located in the very center of the legendary Swiss industry - the small town of Le Locle. Bure set to work with all possible zeal. First, Moscow and Kiev brand stores were opened, and in 1899 the Pavel Bure company received the most prestigious status of supplier to the Imperial Court.

A masterpiece watch for Chaliapin

To say that Bure's watch was a success would be an understatement. Among the aristocrats and senior officials At that time, owning a Bure watch was a sign of good manners. The famous Fyodor Chaliapin, for example, was given a luxury watch from Bure in 1903. The gift cost serious money at that time - as much as 450 rubles - since the gold watch case was encrusted with precious stones. While fulfilling government contracts, Pavel Bure's company also produced ordinary models in simple metal cases for the needs of the military and railway departments.

Russian life at the beginning of the last century is literally permeated with frequent references to the filigree products of Pavel Bure. Literature, science, theater - everywhere the clock left a bright mark. These could be chronographs or purely home watches, large wall-mounted items for public places or compact travel watches, as well as alarm clocks. Gold-plated repeaters were also made. The company's capital store became a meeting place for writers. On the brilliant pages of A.P. Chekhov, for example, you can find more than 20 various references to the famous Bure clock.

First of many

The glory of Bure is still colossal. At the same time, it cannot be said that his products were decidedly better in quality than all the others. At the turn of the two centuries, other, no less eminent watchmakers also successfully worked in Russia. You can recall such famous brands as Moser, Winter, Omega. The secret of Bure's triumph lies, it seems to us, in counting on mass buyers, and not just a select few. At that time, watches were turning from an expensive luxury into a truly necessary item. Not prone to arrogance, Pavel Bure offered options accessible to almost everyone.

Accessibility is the key to success

Products of the brand, equipped with metal cases and assembled in Russia, found their way into the pockets of ordinary average people. The cost of these models started at two rubles, which were quite affordable at that time. Perhaps this is precisely why Pavel Bure’s company owned about half of the entire national market at that time. It is clear that for the rich and wealthy, the company offered high-quality Swiss movements, housed in premium cases made of precious metals.

Through the Bolshevik Revolution

The revolution of 1917 put an end to the Russian activities of the Pavel Bure company. The company survived because the main watch production was still in Switzerland. I had to move the company's head office to the quiet city of Le Locle. Probably, it is deeply indicative of the fact that number 88964 remained with Nicholas II until his last hour. The products of Pavel Bure served the new authorities well: wall clocks from this company hung in the Kremlin office of Vladimir Lenin. Pocket “Pavel Bure” was readily used by Joseph Stalin. The tradition of finding out the time “by the Storm” turned out to be stronger than drastic historical upheavals...

Born in Reval in 1842. Pavel Pavlovich Bure’s father, Pavel Karlovich Bure, is a hereditary honorary citizen “for the conscientious and diligent fulfillment, while maintaining official interest, of the obligations assumed since 1839 for the Court of the late Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna (daughter of Emperor Nicholas I) and for the Sergius Dacha in Bose.”

His title and business were inherited by his eldest son, Pavel Pavlovich Bure, who graduated from the Peter and Paul Commercial School and became his father’s partner at the age of 26, in 1868. In 1874, he acquired a large watch factory in the heart of the Swiss watch industry, Locle. - the heart of the watch industry. But he didn’t earn much money: the competition in the market was serious: Patek Philippe, Breguet and Tissot held the Russian markets, not allowing them to reduce the price. But the mere fact that the man was trying to do something attracted the attention of the imperial family to him: Their Highnesses Eugene and Sergei Maximilianovich were very pleased with the appearance of a decent Russian watch company in the capital and, at their insistence, in the shop window and workshop Bure, the state emblem appeared - a very, very attractive “label”.

In 1880 he became an appraiser at the Cabinet of His Imperial Majesty. This title gave the right to have the state emblem on the display window.

Also, Pavel Pavlovich Bure was listed as a technician at the Imperial Hermitage and consul of the Venetian Republic, a supplier to the Supreme Court since 1879 and a merchant of the 1st guild since 1884.

In the last thirty years before the revolution, the company became that “Paul Bure”, without whom a conversation about the history of Russian watchmaking is unthinkable. To expand the business, a store was opened in Moscow, and then in Kyiv.

In 1899, the company was awarded the title Supplier of the Imperial Court. During the reign of Alexander III (1881-1894), 3,477 gift watches worth 277,472 rubles were awarded from His Majesty’s Cabinet. The overwhelming number of them were from the Bure company.

In the papers of His Majesty's Cabinet there are petitions from the Bure company for permission to import into Russia watches with the image of the state emblem on the cover. In the bureaucratic and artistic circles, they were as attentive to the price of gift Bure as they once were to the rank according to Peter’s Table of Ranks.

According to government orders, watches were also made in simple metal cases. We are talking about prize-winning army watches, railway watches and, of course, the world's first real wristwatches.

There were so many “Pavel Bure” watches that it is difficult to find a story from Russian life at the beginning of the last century where things would have happened without them. Walking clocks and chronographs, road watches and wall clocks from presences, alarm clocks and gold repeaters - the whole story is literally riddled with references to “Pavel Storm”. Not without the participation of writers, this name almost became a common noun.

For example, in the works of Anton Pavlovich Chekhov alone, the “Bure Clock” appears more than 20 times. One can only be very surprised why a bold writer’s pen, like Pushkin’s, was not found, so that it was customary to write “bure” with a lowercase letter, like “breguet”.

Connoisseurs of antique watches find it difficult to explain why Bure's watches were somehow better than the watches of other watch companies operating in Russia at the turn of the century. Some of them, like Bure, had their own factories in Russia, where watches were assembled from parts brought from abroad. However, neither Winter, nor Omega, nor even Moser could compete with the Bure company. The reasons must be sought in proper marketing, counting on the widest segments of buyers, and not just on the support of the Court, orientation towards high status, and not just on government orders. At that time, when watches turned from a luxury into a necessity, Pavel Bure sold watches for everyone. The Pavel Bure brand was also worn by medium-sized pocket watches in a simple metal case (of those assembled in the company’s own factories). Prices for Pavel Bure watches started at just two rubles. The company owned 50 percent of the Russian market for inexpensive watches. For wealthier buyers, the same mechanisms were inserted into silver and gold cases. Complex movements (repeaters, chronographs, calendars) were ordered from the most reputable watch companies in Switzerland.

The Pavel Bure watch received the highest awards at many national and international exhibitions, including the World Exhibitions in Paris: in 1889 - a silver medal, and in 1900 - a gold medal. It is symbolic that the “Pavel Bure” watch - gold (No. 88964, which served the emperor for almost a decade and a half) and silver marine - were with Nicholas II until his death in Yekaterinburg.

Despite the fact that the business was developing, Pavel Pavlovich sold it to two of his partners: the Swiss Jean-Georges Pfund and the Frenchman Paul Girard, and he himself retired in 1888. He died four years later - and no one would probably have ever remembered him if not for his name and the state emblem...

Bibliography:

1 - Trading house for the revival of the traditions of the watchmaker of the Court of His Majesty Pavel Karlovich Bure http://www.p-bure.com/story.html

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