Gaël Petermann and Florian Bédat are two watchmakers in their early thirties who met at the Technicum Neuchâtelois and then worked at Voutilainen and other serious independent ateliers through the 2010s. In 2020 they founded their eponymous brand, Petermann Bédat, in Renens (just outside Lausanne, Switzerland). The founding ambition was unusual for a pair of independents under 35: produce a grand-complication at the top tier of modern hand-finishing.
The launch reference was the Reference 1967 Dead Beat Seconds (2020), named for the year the deadbeat-seconds complication was standardised on observatory chronometers. The deadbeat seconds (also called seconde morte, French for "dead second") is a mechanism that makes the seconds hand advance in discrete one-second jumps rather than sweep smoothly. The mechanism uses a one-per-second impulse from a parallel differential gear train, independent of the main going train. Petermann Bédat's implementation uses a second dedicated escape wheel, visible through the sapphire caseback, to produce the jumping indication.
The hand-finishing is central to the proposition. Movements are entirely hand-decorated: bevelled anglage on every edge, mirror-polished steelwork, engraved balance cock, hand-guilloché dial (on certain variants). The standard is cited alongside Philippe Dufour and Akrivia for finishing quality, unusual for a brand less than five years old. Retail at launch: CHF 95,000; production approximately 25 watches per year.
Subsequent references include the Reference 1967 Chronographe à Seconde Morte (2022), a chronograph with independent-impulse seconds, and the Reference 2941 (2023), a dressier three-hander with a regulator-style dial. Petermann Bédat has been admitted to the AHCI (Académie Horlogère des Créateurs Indépendants) in 2022, placing them in the peer group of Philippe Dufour, F.P. Journe, and Akrivia. Retail runs from approximately CHF 95,000 (Reference 1967) to CHF 150,000+ (Chronographe à Seconde Morte) and CHF 250,000+ for specific limited configurations. The brand remains wholly independent and family-run from Renens.
