Berneron's New Mirage 38 Miroir Is Impressively Mirrored

Sylvain Berneron is one of the handful of darlings of the watch world that actually deserve the accolades and adorations that he receives. Having previously designed cars and Breitlings, his eponymous brand is something so impressive, something so unique, that it still kind of stands completely alone in the watch world. His watches are wonderfully shaped, perfectly thin and often breathtakingly beautiful. This latest variant, which was introduced in late August, the Mirage 38 Miroir does something to show off one of the more important parts of the watch – the movement. And it does it by flipping the movement over to show it on the dial. Fantastic stuff.

The case measures 38mm long by 34mm wide, 7mm thick, with a lug-to-lug of 42mm. It's made out of 18k gold, white or yellow, and when Berneron says it's all gold, he means it. The case is gold, the spring bars are gold, the buckle is gold. Even the movement is gold. And in a complete boss move, Berneron uses hesalite with a scratch-resistant treatment on top and bottom, giving the watch a soft vintage look. It still has the irregular in outline of the original and 30 meters of water resistance.

There is no dial. The Calibre 283 is a mirrored interpretation of the 233 that powers the standard Mirage, reworked so much that only about a fifth of the components are carried over, mostly the barrel and the winding assembly. The mainplate and bridges stand in for the dial and they are beautiful, with steps, split lines and level changes. Time is indicated with squigly gold hands and while there's no small seconds display to speak of, it does have a seconds wheel that turns with no markings.

Calibre 283 is manually wound and tiny, 30 x 28mm and 2.83mm thick, with 135 components and 17 jewels. A free-sprung balance beats at 21,600vph and twin barrels give 72 hours. Finishing includes guilloché, anglage, colimaçonnage, cerclage, traits tirés, nuagage and laser engraving. It comes on a 20-16mm Barenia leather strap with a gold buckle, or on a solid gold bracelet Berneron developed in-house.

Price is set at CHF 72,500 excluding VAT on the strap or CHF 130,250 excluding VAT on the gold bracelet, with first deliveries in October 2027 and Series A capped at 36 per colour per year for ten years. Good luck getting this one. See more on the Berneron website.