Bovet, the Fleurier-based watchmaker known to collectors for its impressive combinations of complications, decorative finishes, unique crown placement and modern, open designs, has added several new creations to its line. They were launched during the week of the Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie in January, which is becoming known as “watch week” in Geneva.
The brand’s specialty of combining multiple complications is reflected in the new watches, beginning with the Récital 15, which has a jumping hour, retrograde minute index and a unique seconds carriage. There is a triple seconds hand on the caseback, which runs on the same axis as the seconds hand on the front of the dial. The bezel is set with baguette diamonds, which makes the watch, with a 42mm case, suitable for a man or woman with a penchant for unusual complications.
The Récital 16 is another rare combination of complications; it is a triple time zone tourbillon. Local time is displayed on the central dial, with the other two time zones in subdials on either side, each with a day/night indicator and topped by a 24-city disk to identify the time zone. A power reserve indicator appears at 12 o’clock. Two barrels guarantee a power reserve of seven days. The movement, like all Bovet calibers, is beautifully decorated, with even the smallest component requiring a minimum of ten hours work.
Perpetual Calendar
A tourbillon carriage is also the highlight of the Amadeo Fleurier Tourbillon Virtuoso III, which has a retrograde perpetual calendar and reversed hand fitting, allowing hours and minutes to be displayed on the reverse side.
This timepiece meets the ongoing challenge of perpetual calendars – fitting a lot of information on the dial. Hours and minutes are displayed on a central dial, with the calendar information displayed on the periphery. To enhance legibility, the calendar’s hand is placed under the hours and minutes dial, with only the arrow visible on the graduated scale. To enable this hand to move backwards within such a small arc and to accommodate the retrograde mechanism under the small hours and minutes dial, Bovet developed a special patented millimetric rack. The watch is decorated on both sides. The Virtuoso III is a limited edition of thirty-nine timepieces.
The Bovet by Pininfarina Sergio is the brand’s latest collaboration with notable Italian sports car design studio Pininfarina, and is named after Sergio Pininfarina, the company president (just as, last year, a “Sergio Ferrari” was introduced at the Geneva Auto Show).
A split-seconds chronograph, the watch’s crown is at the 12 o’clock position, with pushbuttons for the split seconds and functions on either side of it.
Like many Bovet dials, this one is three-dimensional, with a multi-level dial. The 30-minute totalizer at 12 o’clock, small seconds at 6 o’clock and power reserve indicator at 3 o’clock have all been placed on a lower dial plane. The logos are at 9 o’clock with perforations, echoing a feature of the Sergio Ferrari. Like all timepieces in the collection, the Sergio Chronograph features the Amadeo convertible system, which makes it possible to convert it into a miniature table clock, a sports timer or a pocket watch.
The Récital 12 Monsieur Dimier Caliber Virtuoso II Spécialité Horlogere Dimier 1738 is the first non-tourbillon developed and manufactured entirely by watchmakers of the brand’s Dimier Manufacture. Two windows have been cut out of the barrel bridge, where the power reserve is indicated at the top and a segment of the barrel is shown at the bottom. The open-worked, manual-wound movement and case together are only 9.1mm thick.
Dial beauty
Bovet is noted for its workmanship in enamels, mother-of-pearl, miniaturization and engraving, which means decorative ladies’ watches are a natural niche for the brand. The Amadeo Fleurier 36 Miss Audrey has a striking guilloché dial, coated in either turquoise or light purple lacquer. The bezel is set with sixty round diamonds and the strap attachment, above the crown, is set with forty-three diamonds. Due to its lower density of steel and its small size, the Miss Audrey is the lightest timepiece in the collection, and can be worn
comfortably as a pendant.
Also for the ladies, the Récital 11 Miss Alexandra is no less decorative, yet subtler in terms of coloring. The unusually shaped hour and minute hands are special in that they form a heart every hour just before they intersect.The realistic moon disk was created by engraving it with the likeness of the surface of the moon and filling in hollow parts with a luminous material. The moonphase function requires only a single one-day correction every 122 years. The corrector is placed concentric to the winding and time-setting crown, so it can be adjusted simply by pressing the center of the crown. The central dial is guilloché black mother-of-pearl, with ten diamond indexes.