BOVET pushes its limits in watchmaking with the Récital 18 Shooting Star®
Crafting the Récital 18 Shooting Star® proves BOVET that it can turn its imagination into a reality with the fascinating timepiece that functions as five-day tourbillon, hemispheric universal worldwide time with selectable time zone and ultra-compact 24 cities indicator, hemispheric precision moon phase, jumping hours and retrograde minutes
The technicians and watchmakers at BOVET 1822 and DIMIER 1738 Manufacture needed a change of perspective before they finally made a move in creating the newly unveiled BOVET novelty: The Récital 18 Shooting Star® Tourbillon. Guided by the principle that observing the stars has served as a basis for defining time since the dawn of humanity, Pascal Raffy and his watchmakers deliberately looked through the wrong side of their loupes. The simple change in perspective brought about by taking this step back helped the observers to gain an overview of the dance of the planets and to grasp its complexity with disconcerting clarity.
With the newfound understanding of the various astral phenomena related to the measurement of time, BOVET was led to the idea of representing the entire globe in a single hemisphere. A cartographer was specially commissioned to design this atypical and hitherto unknown 3D map of the world.
A first hemisphere was thus chosen to represent the Earth and enable the reading of universal time, which is displayed in three dimensions at 3 o’clock. A hand affixed to the North Pole—that is the axis of Earth’s hemisphere—follows its curve. It can be assigned to any one of the 24-time zones selected by the user. At its tip, a concentric ring displays the time in the chosen time zone, while the name of the city corresponding to that time zone appears on one of the two concentric rollers indexed to the hemisphere. The time zone hand is another first since never before had the manufacturer produced a hemispheric hand, with all the difficulties inherent in the high quality required. In addition to displaying the time and the name of the city corresponding to an easily adjustable time zone, the 24-hour ring that surrounds the globe enables instant reading of the time anywhere in the world. Simply follow a straight line from the centre of the globe, passing through the selected geographical point. The tip of this line will point to the exact time in the selected place on the graduated ring. To link the hand of the second time zone to a specific city, the wearer simply need to press the centre of the crown. With each successive press, the needle jumps by an angular value of 15°, representing the exact value of the time zone. This action also activates the rollers and the names of the cities corresponding to the time zones indicated by the hand are displayed in sequence.
The Récital 18 Shooting Star® Tourbillon also features the moon phase indicator in the form of a hemisphere. Two circular apertures follow the curve of this lunar globe and indicate the age of the moon as seen from the northern and southern hemispheres respectively. The moon phase indicator is driven by a highly precise mechanism that only requires correction by one day in every 122 years.
Another hemisphere is placed at 12 o’clock to display the hours and minutes and the power reserve. As near to the mainplate as possible, a flat sapphire disc displays the digital jump hours, which are revealed when positioned on a lacquered plate. In the centre of the display, a curved dial in white polished lacquer or aventurine displays the exceptional power reserve. A third stratum indicates the minutes by means of a retrograde hand.
Perfectly designed for travel, this watch has corrector that enables the hour disk to be adjusted without affecting the minutes, seconds, universal time or indexed time zone. The pushpiece is simply pressed and the watch is easily readjusted to the latest time zone being visited. To drive all of the complications, the two barrels generate five days of power reserve, all controlled by a tourbillon balance oscillating at 21,600 VpH. Three blued masses are positioned on the golden serge, inspired by the shape of the arches that adorned the balances of BOVET pocket watches in the 19th century. The DIMIER escapement and its specific centering guarantee exemplary performance. Like all components used in the manufacture of BOVET movements, the Shooting Star® is regulated by a hair spring manufactured in the in-house workshops— an art mastered by fewer than ten watchmaking companies around the world. Performing each of its revolutions in one minute, the tourbillon features a triple seconds-hand, unusually placed under the tourbillon and following a subtly tampoprinted graduation inside the crystal, for a clear and original display.
Meanwhile, in the fourth hemisphere, the decoration of the movement is revealed to perfectly match the timepiece’s originality, technical complexity and innovations. An entirely hand-engraved constellation of stars extends across the entire surface of the movement. A moon phase is entirely represented on the back, with captivating poetry. On the same side, two entirely hand-engraved hemispheres evoke the spherical nature of the terrestrial and lunar globes. The carriage and tourbillon bridges are also entirely hand-engraved, despite their delicate nature and the tiny amount of surface area available.
The technical intricacy of this spatial vision of time inspired the technicians and watchmakers at BOVET 1882 and its DIMIER 1738 Manufacture to devise a movement based on resolutely innovative methods, which led to the filing of two patents: The patented display mechanism with radial guidance (Patent: 0208-DI-CH) and the patented control mechanism for horological movement (Patent: 0212-DI-CH).
Thus, in following the original art form of this watch, it naturally necessitated a new direction for the design of the case which is completely consistent with the vision of this timepiece. A domed sapphire crystal with a very pronounced curve therefore crowns the massive 46mm case, in 18-carat red or white gold, of this Shooting Star® Tourbillon. Also, the watch middle follows a pronounced oblique incline along the 12 o’clock to 6 o’clock axis. The hours disk corrector is positioned at 12 o’clock, for a supremely ergonomic display and positioning that confirm the symmetry of the watch.
The presence of a total of seven domes, including the four hemispheres of the movement, the dials, the tourbillon carriage and the upper crystal lend the ultimate finishing touch to this timepiece. Wrapped in full skin alligator strap with 18-carat red or white gold ardillon buckle, the BOVET Recital 18 Shooting Star® Tourbillon is available in limited edition of 50 pieces only.
