Old-world aesthetics flourish in the highlighter family party of this watch.
What we love
Bovet is a watchmaker who walked straight out of a Swiss fairy tale. The company is independent and is located in a real castle-Le Château de Môtiers-once belonging to the original Bovet family, overlooking the town of Môtiers in Neuchâtel. The watches produced by the company since its rebirth in the late 1990s are a fascinating combination of handmade craftsmanship and complex old-world aesthetics that attract your attention from the other side of the room.
Bovet watches are rare among independent brands today because of their superior quality and the same excellent price. But they are still severely underestimated among most watch lovers, and I have contributed to their long-established names and almost dramatic watch design methods.
The company uses proprietary alloys to produce its own balance springs and makes every detail of the watch in-house, except for elements such as rubies, mainspring, crystals and straps. As we all know, this kind of dedication to vertical manufacturing is extremely rare in the Swiss watch industry. This is the main reason why I have been paying attention to Bovet’s new products. The other is the company’s fanatical pursuit of art. Last week, Bovey gave up a small part of the work and further developed the Virtuoso VIII Chapter Two platform, which will debut in 2020, through the creative application of color Super-LumiNova and black DLC.
Around the central pinion are three independent circular displays, including power reserve indicators, brand logos, and a home page for the big date, followed by a one-minute double-sided flying tourbillon, which includes a second hand around the aperture. Other notable technical details in Virtuoso VIII Chapter 2 include the use of a cabochon in the crown as a fast date corrector and the patented spherical differential winding-visible at 12 o’clock-the number of turns of the crown Halved to wind the watch, all of which will not damage the gear train.
The second chapter of Virtuoso VIII is first of all a highly complex mechanical engineering. The 17BM06-GD movement is hand-wound and beautifully decorated. A single mainspring barrel can provide a power reserve of 10 days at a frequency of 2.5 Hz, combined with a flying tourbillon, a large date display and a central hour and minute display.
The Virtuoso VIII series has been around for a while, but it was updated last year with a more streamlined, more casual look and feel-if Bovi can have such a thing. This is the request of a collector who owns the original version of the watch, which has a carefully hand-decorated and engraved movement, and wants to be less decorative for daily wear. In 2020, Bovet resolved this solicitation issue through the second chapter of Virtuoso VIII, and the new Virtuoso VIII chapter two “reimagined” accepted the request of the original collector and turned it into the most modern, One of the most visually impactful Bovi releases.
The company’s iconic tilting “Writing Slope” case with the crown at 12 o’clock is made of black DLC-coated titanium, which is a surprising turn for a company most related to precious metals. . The entire top surface of the two horizontal sub-dials and the second track around the tourbillon frame are painted with a fluorescent Super-LumiNova luminous finish. The available color options make things very interesting, distinguishing Virtuoso VIII Chapter 2 from all previous versions.
Each is limited to 8 pieces. The various Virtuoso VIII Chapter Two models produced in the “reimagining” run include bright salmon and sky blue dials, which may have colors in the future.
What we know
Well, if it’s still not clear, please know that I have a soft spot for Bovet’s unique watchmaking methods. There is a saying in the watch media that once you visit a watch factory, you visit all the watch factories. There is some truth to this-there are only so many ways to rearrange CNC machines in a convincing way. But I was fortunate to visit Le Château de Môtiers in the spring of 2019, which is different from any other watchmaker I have visited before. Operating in the home of the original Bovet family, Bovet’s management has a warmth that attracted my attention, but it did not attract my attention. left.
Bovet watches are usually influenced by the historical pocket watches created by the company in the early to mid-1800s. These pocket watches are always carefully crafted in terms of decoration. Bovet also has a very close relationship with the Chinese market in history. When I visited Bovet, I heard a story about how the founder, Edouard Bovet, traveled to China in the early 19th century without knowing the Chinese soul. He owns four pocket watches, each priced at more than one million dollars today. As a result, Bovet was able to establish a relationship and produce pocket watches for the Chinese nobles. Eventually, the name Bovet became synonymous with the concept of “watch” for many people in the country, similar to Kleenex and “
When I looked at the Virtuoso VIII Chapter 2 “Reimagined” model, I not only saw an impressive display of watchmaking, but also reflected the company’s values. I think this is a fascinating step in developing one of the quietest and most interesting watch companies today.
Basic knowledge
Brand: Bovet 1822
Model: Virtuoso VIII Chapter 2 “Reimagined”
Reference number: sky blue, T10GD042; salmon, T10GD051
Diameter: 44 mm
Housing material: black DLC coated titanium
Dial color: hollow, with sky blue luminous coating dial or salmon
Index: N/A
Lu Mei: Yes, luminous-and a lot of it!
Water resistance: 30 meters
Strap/Bracelet: Black/Blue Alligator Leather
sports
Movement: Bovet caliber 17BM06-GD
Functions: hours, minutes, seconds, big date, one-minute flying tourbillon, power reserve display power reserve
: 10 days
Chord: Manual
Frequency: 2 Hz; 18,000 vph
Observatory certification: N/A
Other details: the date is quickly corrected by the cabochon crown; the spherical differential winding system; the Côtes de Genève on the bridges and bridges become black
