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Rubber straps are relatively new in the centuries-old history of wristwatches, and their widespread popularity is even more recent. Like many elements of watchmaking, rubber straps first came into use for a specific utilitarian purpose, and now—in a world that no longer needs watches as practical tools—rubber straps no longer need to be purely functional. They can simply be a fashion statement.
The first rubber straps appeared in the 1960s throughout the catalogs of brands like Rolex, Tudor, IWC, and Blancpain. Fittingly, these rubber straps were perfect for sport models like dive watches thanks to their lightweight build, durability, and resistance to the elements. Still, it would be another three decades before the rubber strap would transform from an occasional companion for a tool watch to a prominent bracelet material seen across styles and brands at all price points.
Hublot was at the forefront of shifting the perception and prevalence of the rubber strap. In 1980, the brand debuted the material in its catalog in a surprising way. The Classic Original (later revived as the Classic Fusion) featured Hublot’s signature porthole shaped case rendered in polished and brushed gold, complete with a black rubber strap, perfectly complementing the model’s black dial. The watch was not only the brand’s first to showcase a rubber strap but also the first luxury wristwatch ever to combine a rubber strap with a precious metal case as opposed to stainless steel. The design instantly elevated the once casual material into the world of high-end watchmaking.
This trend has continued to grow over the past 45 years alongside the broader fashion trends elevating denim, sneakers, baseball caps, bomber jackets, and even athleisure into haute couture collections. Today, nearly every brand—big and small, new and old, accessible and aspirational, from Norqain to Roger Dubuis to Richard Mille—has a rubber strap somewhere in their collection. What you may be surprised to learn is a vast majority of these rubber straps are coming from one singular maker called Biwi SA.
I’m sure you’re familiar with many if not all of the brands we’ve mentioned who have been a key part of the evolution and popularization of the rubber strap, but it’s quite possible you have never heard the name Biwi before. Biwi is not new to the scene. The brand has been around since the 1950s but really started to grow and expand in the early 80s, right around the pivotal moment when Hublot unveiled the Classic Original with a rubber strap.
Biwi was founded by Pierre Bourquard in the Jura Mountains near the French border just a couple hours outside Geneva. The company began producing a wide array of watch components from gaskets and crowns to cases and bracelets, but its growth and success exploded once it got into the rubber strap game. By the 1990s, Biwi’s facilities had grown to span 5000 square meters in order to accommodate its increasing demand and production numbers.
Into the new millennium, Biwi notched a major milestone in the evolution of its rubber straps. The brand teamed up with Dupont in 2009 to harness the power of its FFKM Kalrez rubber, known for its highly resistant properties and ability to withstand high temperatures. Biwi employed this exceptional rubber in a watch strap for the first time, resulting in the most robust rubber strap on the market.
One of these groundbreaking straps went on to appear on one of Richard Mille’s divers that year. The RM 025 not only featured Biwi’s exceptional new rubber strap but also showcased another one of Biwi’s patented techniques called Vulcamix. The method was employed in the diver’s rotating bezel and micro-injection molded pushers thanks to a process of injection and finishing.
Into the 2010s, Biwi continued to rack up loads of new patents, for example Vulcolor, which allows complex coloring of rubber straps in patterns like camouflage as seen in Graham’s Chronofighter Black Arrow as well as Vulcaceram, which allows an over molding of rubber on ceramic as seen in Omega’s Deep Black Seamaster Planet Ocean. In 2017, the brand partnered with Roger Dubuis and Formula 1 to bring to life the first-ever use of F1 tires for a strap in the watchmaker’s Excalibur Spider Pirelli collection. A year later, Biwi introduced the first 100% rubber Nato type strap created with a new and unique technology and manufactured by hand in Bulgari’s black DLC Bulgari Bulgari Solotempo watch.
Despite Biwi’s impressive roster of proprietary materials and patents (totaling a whopping 14 today), the success of its straps is really quite simple.
“At the end of the day, it really comes down to the feeling, the user’s experience of wearing the strap,” describes Pascal Bourquard Jr., the third-generation leader and CEO of Biwi. “It’s about comfort, it’s about durability, it’s about being lightweight, and it’s about resistance. This combination of four things makes the perfect rubber strap,” he confirms. “It’s simple to articulate, but it’s not so simple to achieve.”
In 2018, Pascal Bourquard Jr. rose to the helm of the company as its third generation of family leadership. Under his direction, the brand has continued to grow exponentially. It has tripled its workforce from around 100 to 300 employees, completely renovated its existing buildings, and expanded the company with a new two-story complex spanning 3000 square meters dedicated to production and innovation, making the entire Biwi compound stretch across more than 21,000 square meters in the Jura Mountains today.
The evolution of Biwi as a company is a direct reflection of the growth of its clientele and the value proposition it’s able to provide to them.
“We don’t offer a catalog of products that clients simply choose from,” clarifies Bourquard. “Everything we do is bespoke, exclusive, uniquely developed for each customer based on their specific needs. If you’re our client, we truly work in partnership with you,” he continues. “We will challenge you, and we will provide you with the maximum potential for your products. This is the spirit of the brand, and I think that this is what makes us different from any of our competitors.”
Pascal Bourquard Jr. was also responsible for forging one of the brand’s most important partnerships with the watchmaker Norqain. Norqain was founded by Ben Kuffer in the same year Pascal Bourquard Jr. took over the family business in 2018. As business owners in the same sphere, the two naturally crossed paths and had an instant connection as young leaders in the industry, but it would still take some time before they could seize an opportunity to partner together.
“It was really quite beautiful, like a story you see in a film,” recalls Bourquard. “During the pandemic, we would sit alone in our respective empty offices speaking for literally hundreds of hours in passionate exchange about how we might build an innovative product together and what that could look like if we joined forces. This professional challenge—from navigating our companies through the pandemic to developing that product together has created a unique and powerful partnership,” he shares. “It’s bigger than business—it’s a genuine friendship.”
In spite of the pandemic, 2020 ultimately proved to be a surprisingly big year for Norqain. One of the brand’s early moments of success came that February when it solidified a partnership with the movement manufacturer Kenissi, allowing Norqain to introduce two of its own exclusive, chronometer-certified in-house calibers and replacing its previous use of Sellita and ETA movements all while maintaining an accessible price point. In 2020, Kuffer also met the legendary Jean-Claude Biver, and they got to talking about how he might get involved with the brand.
“Jean-Claude told me he wanted to know how he could be part of our innovation,” shares Kuffer. “He wanted to see us create a totally different revolutionary model that would be the ultimate high performance sport watch within the Norqain world, and I told him, I know the guy we should talk to—that guy was Pascal.”
So, the trio set a meeting, and everything came full circle. In addition to being an icon of the industry, Biver had served as the CEO of Hublot for the decade between 2004 and 2014 during which time he continued the brand’s momentum in its use of rubber straps.
“When I set the meeting with Pascal, I didn’t tell him I was bringing Jean-Claude,” Kuffer confesses. “Pascal was so happy to see us both arrive as Jean-Claude, for him, is a bit of a hero. So, the synergy was instantly there, and that’s the moment the development of Norteq and the Wild One first started.”
By the spring of 2022, Biver had officially joined Norqain as an advisor to the board, and by the fall of 2022, the brand had debuted the all-new, totally innovative material in an entirely new collection.
Norteq is a revolutionary, highly shock resistant carbon fiber-based material. From a practical perspective, it is six times lighter than steel and three-and-a-half times lighter than titanium. However, it has incredible aesthetic benefits as well—it’s a carbon fiber composite that can be colorized.
“Historically, bio sourced materials are synonymous with horrible aesthetics,” admits Bourquard. “But with Norteq, we have made a bio sourced product that retains all the necessary practical properties—it’s hard, it won’t break, it’s lightweight, and it’s super resistant—and it’s aesthetically beautiful and above all colorable, which is a first in a carbon composite. It was not easy—it was in fact very difficult,” he clarifies. “To put color in carbon is a huge challenge because carbon fiber is black—so it’s near impossible. But with Norteq, we have a secret formula and process that makes it special and allows us to overcome this and give it color.”
The versatility of Norteq is epitomized in Norqain’s Wild One of 1, launched at Watches and Wonders in 2024. This landmark concept and watch industry milestone gives customers access to the possibility of 3.5 million different, fully customized versions of the Wild One in eleven steps.
“Quality isn’t just something you see; it’s something you feel,” describes Biver, echoing Bourquard’s approach to Biwi’s rubber straps. “What could be more powerful than giving a customer that sensory satisfaction? When you approach design with this in mind, you create something unforgettable, and Norteq is exactly that. It’s an innovative, complex material, but you only truly understand it when you feel it.”
Biver isn’t shy about his belief that the development of new materials in watchmaking will be the legacy of the next generation of great watchmakers. So, it comes as no surprise that he would approach Norqain and be a key player in a partnership for the brand that would result in the creation of a proprietary composite and contribute to the legacy it’s building.
“Innovation is essential—especially for a young brand,” explains Biver. “Being first to do something makes you the innovator, makes you unique. Norqain saw this moment and seized it, partnering with Biwi to develop Norteq. But this isn’t just a material—it’s a statement,” he continues. “In less than two years, the Wild One has become Norqain’s best-selling collection. What does that tell you? To me, it says the industry and its customers are ready for something truly different, and Norqain is different—that will be its legacy.”
This legacy—built collectively between Biver, Norqain, and Biwi—will continue to unfold. Just ahead of Q4 in 2024, Norqain did a company-wide exercise to outline its ambitions for the next several years leading up to its monumental 10-year anniversary in 2028.
“Our goal is to have three collections, and we want to have property materials in all three collections,” teases Kuffer. “That is what we’re working on for our 2028 vision. Of course, Biwi is our partner for that, and we are already having a lot of fun going into many different materials.”
I think we can safely say the anticipation is already killing us as we wait for what’s in store—one thing is certain: it’s sure to be a major moment not just for the brand but for the future of the industry. Biwi
