The Récital 20 Astérium by Bovet 1822 is a watch that keeps track of astronomical time. Instead of using the usual perpetual calendar function, in which the watch takes the leap year cycle into account, and so adding an extra day every four years, the Astérium follows the true course of time, determined by the…
At first sight, it’s a tourbillon watch with a big date, but there is more to the Bovet 1822 Virtuoso VIII than meets the eye. One thing is difficult to see in the official photos: the case is slightly angled, wedge-form, only 4.5° but nonetheless it creates a sort of theatrical stage effect. In the…
The Château de Môtiers 40 Papillon by Bovet 1822 is a watch with a mother-of-pearl dial painted with a butterfly motif. The unusual feature is that it is painted with both conventional colour and luminescent paint, so that it takes on new life in the dark. Bovet say that the difficult part of the process…
Sometimes you see a timepiece that has a detail that lifts it above the vast ocean of watches. Bovet 1822 offers a good example with the Récital 19 Miss Dimier, an elliptical watch with a diamond-set bezel, designed specifically for women. The touch of brilliance is in the hour and minute hands, which are designed…
Bovet 1822 company profile: The Bovet family came from Fleurier in Switzerland, and they were, like many people in that small town, active as watchmakers. In the late 1700s, Napoleon’s trade protection policies forced many Fleurier watchmakers to emigrate in order to find work, and the Bovet brothers Edouard, Charles-Frédéric and Charles-Alphonse went to London.…
The collaboration between Bovet 1822 and Pininfarina began in 2010 with the Tourbillon Ottanta, and this year’s model, Flying Tourbillon Ottantasei, differs from previous pieces in that the case is much thinner, and it does not have the Amadeo system that enables the piece to be transformed from wristwatch to pocket watch. Particularly in the…
There is a lot of content in this watch. It has two faces, with time indications on both, a perpetual calendar on one side, and power reserve on the other. The continuous seconds indicator, on a 20-second scale with three hands, can be seen correctly on both sides by virtue of the coaxial seconds carriage…
The first timepieces in history were the earth and the moon. Our prehistoric ancestors observed the sequences of day and night, the seasons and the phases of the moon, and used them to devise the earliest forms of measuring time. In this watch by Bovet 1822, the case, 46 mm in diameter and 18 mm…