History

The founder Pavel Karlovich Bure

Pavel Bure was one of the first watch companies in Europe. The company was founded by Pavel Karlovich Bure, a Russian businessman of German descent. At first the Bure watch company was located exclusively in St. Petersburg. In 1874, 34-year-old Pavel Bure, Sr., son of Charles Bure, decided to purchase a watch factory in Swiss Le Locle. By order of the imperial court the Bure factory produced gift watches, which the emperor presented to officials for distinguished public service, foreign diplomats and prominent figures of culture. Bure watches were also given as bonuses to officers and non-commissioned officers in the Russian army.

Pavel Bure shop under Nevsky prospect 23 in Saint Petersburg, 

Pavel Bure watch company was founded in 1875 «Paul Buhre» manufacturein St. Petersburg by Karlovich Bure, whose son Pavel became his worthy successor. In 1874, in the city of Le Locle (Switzerland), Pavel purchased a large watch factory. In 1899, after Bure's death, Pavel Bure watch company was awarded the title of "The Official Supplier of the Imperial Court." And, as Bure had no heir, after his death the company was sold to a Swiss man, Jean-Georges Pfund and a Frenchman Pavel Girard. Pavel Bure watches always amazed and impressed the customers by their original design and high quality. However, even the experts of antique watches find it difficult to explain why Bure watches are so popular. Many watch companies, such as Winter and Omega, could not compete with Pavel Bure brand. Pavel Bure released the watches for public at large, because the lowest price of its watch was only two rubles. The brand also produced expensive watches, made of silver or gold. It's worth mentioning, that Pavel Bure purchased the complicated movements, such as chronographs and repeaters, at the most famous Swiss watch companies.

Pavel Bure Ads, 1909


In 1916, Paul Buhre company received the Swiss patent ¹ 74 144 for the in-house chronograph. At numerous international exhibitions the company was awarded the highest prizes. In 1917, the Revolution put an end to the watchmaking business in Russia. It is worth saying, that there was a wall clock by Paul Buhre in the Kremlin, in Lenin's office.

Only in 2004, he company was reborn and “Pavel Karlovich Bure's Trading House” was created. And in 2005, new watch collections, produced by ancient tradition, were released. It should be mentioned, that Pavel Bure, the famous Russian hockey player, who is a descendant of the watchmaker Bure, has decided to revive the watchmaking business of his great predecessor. Paul Buhre watch mechanism Paul Buhre watches are made in the Paul Buhré shop classical style. Each model is original: «M01010», «M0051», «M01015», «M0064», «M0066», «M00640», etc. Almost every watch is equipped with the Swiss ETA movement, the cases are round, made of stainless steel, the glasses are sapphire crystals, the straps are produced from crocodile leather. There are some models with the 46-hour power reserve. The golden watches are made of 18K rose or white gold. M0063 wrist watch is a model of a great interest. The dial is turned in such a way, that it is rather handy to read the time in any situation, even while driving a car. Also the crown has changed its location – it is placed at "12:00". The company released a collection known as “Chasovnik”. On the watch dial there are the zodiacal symbols. The watch admirers can enjoy Paul Buhre collections in the museums of Russia and other countries.


Pavel Buhre shop in Moscow


The history of the watch company Bure began in 1815 in St. Petersburg, where Karl Bure moved from Revel together with his son. Pavel Karlovich grew up with the watch business of his father and eventually became an assistant and continuer of his affairs. In the Reference Book of Merchants of 1865 Pavel Karlovich Bure is referred to as "the Reval workshop, 55 years old, in merchants since 1839". At the request of the Dukes of Leichtenberg, their Imperial Highnesses, Princes Eugene and Sergei Maximilianovich, in 1876, Pavel Karlovich Bure was awarded the title of hereditary honorary citizen "for diligent and zealous, with the preservation of public interest, the performance since 1839 of obligations on the Court in Boz of the Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna ( the daughter of Emperor Nicholas I) and the Sergievskaya dacha. " His title and case was inherited by the eldest son Pavel Pavlovich Bure, who graduated from the Petropavlovsk Commercial College and became a partner of his father at the age of 26 in 1868.

Pavel Bure ad, 1914


In 1874, he acquired a large watchmaking factory in the heart of the Swiss watchmaking industry in the town of Locle.

In 1880 he was an appraiser under the Cabinet of His Imperial Majesty. This title gave the right to the state emblem in the window. He is also a technician at the Imperial Hermitage and the consul of the Republic of Venezuela, the supplier of the Highest Court since 1879 and the merchant of the 1st guild since 1884. In the last 30 years before the revolution, the firm became the "Pavel Bure", without which it is inconceivable to talk about the history of Russian watchmaking. To expand business, a store was opened in Moscow, and then in Kiev.


In 1899 the company was awarded the title of Supplier of the Imperial Court. In 1874, he acquired a large watchmaking factory in the heart of the Swiss watchmaking industry in the town of Lockle. In 1880 he was an appraiser under the Cabinet of His Imperial Majesty. This title gave the right to the state emblem in the window. He is also a technician at the Imperial Hermitage and the consul of the Republic of Venezuela, the supplier of the Highest Court since 1879 and the merchant of the 1st guild since 1884. In the last 30 years before the revolution, the firm became the "Pavel Bure", without which it is inconceivable to talk about the history of Russian watchmaking. To expand business, a store was opened in Moscow, and then in Kiev.

This watch has been awarded corporal A. K. Ripatti 25.7 1891 for horse training


During the reign of Alexander III (1881-1894) from the Cabinet of His Majesty, 3,477 gift certificates worth 277,472 rubles were awarded. The overwhelming number of them was from Bure. At the end of the 1890s, only the Supreme Court was supplied with watches worth 50-60 thousand rubles a year. In total, out of the 15,000 hours purchased through His Majesty's Cabinet in 30 pre-revolutionary years, more than 80 percent were "from the Bure." In the papers of His Majesty's Cabinet there are petitions from Bure company about permission to import watches with a picture of the state emblem on the lid. In the bureaucratic and artistic environment, to the price of the gift bureaus were as attentive as they once were to the ranks of the Petrine Table of Ranks. Fedor Shalyapin refused to accept the golden "Paul Bure" gifted him for taking part in a concert for the imperial family in the days of the celebration of the 290th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty in 1903. The reason, according to the officials of His Majesty's Cabinet, was the presence of the same hours for the singer for 150 rubles, which he received at last year's concert. After the incident, the watch was sent "to rise in price", and the gold case was decorated with rubies and diamonds. The cost rose to 450 rubles, and Fedor Ivanovich accepted them. So this episode treats archival documents. In his later memoirs, Fyodor Ivanovich presented his rejection of the tsar's gift as a struggle against the rotten tsarist regime, and does not mention getting an expensive option. The expression of the singer is known: "Only birds sing freely". Now these Chaliapin watches are in the museums of the Moscow Kremlin, where they were transferred to the descendants of the singer. Under government orders, clocks were made in simple metal cases. We are talking about prize army and railway watches and, of course, the world's first real wristwatches. These watches were ordered by the Chief Artillery Directorate in 1904 in connection with the Russo-Japanese War.

Hours Pavel Bure was so much that it is difficult to find a plot from Russian life of the beginning of the last century, where the business would have done without them. Khodiki and chronographs, road builders and wall clocks from the presence, alarm clocks and gold repeaters-the whole story is literally permeated with references to "Pavel Bure".

Not without the participation of writers, this name almost became a common denominator. So, for example, only in Anton Chekhov's works "Buret watches" occur more than 20 times. It remains only to be very surprised why there was no bold writer's pen, like Pushkin's, so that the "storm" should be written from the lowercase as "breguet." Experts of ancient watches find it difficult to explain why Bure's watches were better than watches of other watch firms that worked in Russia at the turn of the century. Some of them, like Bure, had their own factories in Russia, where watches from the details imported from abroad were assembled. However, neither Winter, nor Omega, nor even Moser could compete with Bure. The reasons must be sought in the right marketing, orientation to a high status, counting on the widest layers of buyers, and not only in support of the Court and state orders. At a time when luxury watches turned into a necessity, "Pavel Bure" sold watches for everyone. Mark "Pavel Bure" wore pocket watches of medium dignity in a simple metal case (from those that were assembled in the company's own factories). Prices for Paul Bure watches began from just two rubles. The company owned 50 percent of the Russian market of inexpensive watches. For more affluent buyers, the same mechanisms were inserted into the silver and gold cases. Complex (repeater, chronograph, calendars) arrangements were ordered from the most reputable Swiss watch companies. And in 1916 Pavel Bure obtained a Swiss patent No. 74144 for a chronograph mechanism of its own design.

The Revolution of 1917 put an end to the affairs of the firm Pavel Bure in Russia. It cost the company 7 million gold rubles of losses and 10 buildings. It is symbolic that the watch "Pavel Bure" - gold (No. 88964, which served the emperor almost fifteen years) and silver sea-watches were with Nicholas II until his death in Yekaterinburg. The clock "Bure" came to the liking and new power. Chairman of the Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee Nikolai Podvoisky led the October coup d'etat in the gold pocket "Pavel Bure", which later were called the Clock of the Revolution. In the office of Vladimir Lenin in the Kremlin on the wall hung round wall "Bure". For many years, the pocket "Pavel Bure" was run by Joseph Stalin and Nikita Khrushchev. It should be noted that the firm Pavel Bure did not end its existence in 1917. Saved it then, that the main production facilities were in Switzerland. And with the transfer of the headquarters from Petrograd to the Swiss Le Locle, normal work was resumed.

Although the first years were very difficult, since the main sales market-the Russian one was lost. But the company could not only survive, but also significantly increase the geography of supply and become one of the leading watch companies in Switzerland. In order for Pavel Bure's watches to be recognizable by consumers all over the world, the logo was changed from Cyrillic to Roman Paul Buhre.



The watch was awarded more than 500 prizes by Swiss observatories for accuracy 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.

Mark returned to Russia in 2004 with the efforts of the Trade House to revive the traditions of watchmaker Pavel Karlovich Bure. And the next year, in the year of the 190th anniversary of the firm, the first novelties under the revived brand were issued, conveying the classic spirit of the company's old masterpieces. Particular attention is paid to the high reliability and quality inherent in the pre-revolutionary "Bure". In the clock is installed only time-tested best Swiss mechanics.

Starting with the release of inexpensive models in steel cases, in just a few years the company included in its assortment products in noble silver, gold and platinum with complex and unique calibers. And the interest with which the novelties "from Bure" was received by people of different generations in many countries of the world, gives confidence in the revival of one more old tradition - to determine the time for "Pavel Bure". in just a few years the company included in its assortment products in noble silver, gold and platinum with complex and unique calibers.


image sources:
https://history.wikireading.ru/262682