Bovet, one of the greatest names in the world of luxury watches, redefines the traditional watchmaking and high complications with the newly introduced Bovet Recital 22 Grand Recital Planetarium, the third member of the brand’s Astronomy-themed trilogy.
Almost all the complications, which are among the indispensable elements of the watchmaking world, have lost their usability against advancing technologies. Maybe a simple date display is still very useful to us. Or I’m sure there are people still timing their boiled eggs with an analog chronograph. However, with the widespread use of smartphones, most complications do still exist simply for "emotional" reasons.
But we should not expect an industry based on tradition like luxury watchmaking to turn its back on a strong marketing argument as the complications still represent the pinnacle of mechanical watchmaking for many watch enthusiasts. Speaking of “pinnacle”, have you heard of the Bovet Recital 22 Grand Recital Planetarium model?
Bovet is one of the well-established Swiss brands operating in the luxury watchmaking industry since 1822. Of course, it is not a coincidence that the brand, which is one of the first names that come to mind when it comes to high complications, has its rightful reputation. Having a considerable experience in Astronomical Watches among a few brands, Bovet introduced its third model Bovet Recital 22 Grand Recital Planetarium designed in line with this theme.
The Bovet Recital 22 Grand Recital Planetarium is offered in two different case options as 18K pink gold and Platinum. Considering the characteristics of the model, the 46.30mm diameter case, which is equipped with anti-reflection treated sapphire crystals on both sides as expected, looks very reasonably sized. For both versions, the winding crown is decorated with a natural sapphire. Considering the size and the thick lugs of the case, it is almost impossible to hide the timepiece even from the least curious eyes. Of course, if you really have an intention of putting the watch on and mingle freely with the crowd.
I think the dial and the movement itself can be reviewed together as the dial of the model is actually the front side of the movement’s main body. Bovet Recital 22 Grand Recital Planetarium is powered by the movement Caliber 17DM03-TEL. This miniature engineering masterpiece, which allows the user to literally wear a working planetarium on his/her wrist and grants Bovet five more patents, is a hand wound movement featuring a double-sided flying Tourbillon. The Tourbillon cage located at 6 o’clock represents the sun. Thanks to the 60 minutes interval of Tourbillon’s one full rotation, Bovet engineers cleverly affixed the second hand to the Tourbillon’s carriage wheel to display the seconds. At 12 o’clock, there is the stunningly beautiful hand-painted Earth globe that represents the Earth rotating on its axis as well as displaying the hours in 24h format at the base part of the globe. The globe is surrounded by a black and white ring that represents the moon and rotates around the Earth globe every 29.53 days, as in real life. The other aspects that are as impressive as the engineering part are the visual details and unique craftsmanship. The Earth globe is fully hand-painted with mountains, deserts and oceans which are first engraved and then colored. The black part of the moon ring is inspired by the moon’s surface while the white side is fully polished. Depending on whether it is day or night in a certain part of the world, the light or dark side rotates to indicate the day or night time.
The other features that we find on the dial of the model is the retrograde minute display and the indicator for the impressive 9 days power reserve. If you think this is all you get with that movement, you are wrong as you haven’t seen the rear side yet. The sapphire crystal case back allows you to monitor a full-function Perpetual Calendar with indications of day, date, month and leap year.
The new models will be offered on full grain black alligator straps with the following MSRPs; 18K pink gold - $ 469,800 USD and Platinum - $ 502,200 USD (US list). The production is limited to a span of 60 units only. However, it is not certain how many of these 60 pieces will be in 18K pink gold, and how many will be in platinum, as the proud owner of each timepiece will decide while pre-ordering.
