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Bovet’s Trilogy

It is an approach that dates back 185 years, when Edouard Bovet made his first watches to display exotic European arts to the Chinese aristocracy – then as now, Bovet timepieces gave free reign to watchmakers, enamelers, goldsmiths and jewelers to capture time in the most beautiful and original way possible.

Bovet insists on the finest materials and the rarest workmanship – domed dials in fired enamels, hands and screws blued by fire, or miniature paintings on mother-of-pearl. Movements are selected for the elegance and robustness of their construction. Each is entirely transformed – magnificently decorated in engraving and enamels, or in the traditional finish of an haute horlogerie movement.

The Bovet Only Watch 09

In 2006, Pascal Raffy, touched by the Only Watch cause helping children suffering from the Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, decided to offer a unique and exceptional timepiece, equipped with a complication movement, and featuring the “Madonna and Child” inspired by the famous Raphaël painting – a painting which also happens to decorate a XIX century pocket watch in his own private collection. This very special timepiece was sold at auction and its hammer price reached twice its asking price.

For the 2009 Only Watch edition, Pascal Raffy decided to repeat this successful participation, aiming to do even better. He wished therefore to offer an even more spectacular and unique “Only Watch”.

Bovet is therefore presenting a timekeeper, with an automatic movement, jump hour, and a Polynesian mother-of-pearl dial featuring a miniature painting of Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa”. Many are the artists who have tried to duplicate the famous Joconda’s smile, which is why it has been a real challenge for the artist to achieve this amazing dial after more than a month’s work, a true reflection of the mastery of this ancient art.

Pascal Raffy wished to add even more to his special gift, and he gave this exceptional dial a unique case: by its inventive (and patented) concept, this wristwatch can easily be transformed into a pocket watch or a table clock – a trilogy perfect for any occasion. To wear a timepiece on the wrist is a daily act, but to experience the pleasure to transform it, with a simple gesture, into the jewel of a pocket watch, or to admire it from a few steps away, set on a desk, is pure poetry.

And it is to Only Watch that Pascal Raffy has chosen to offer this special preview, sure that collectors and high watchmaking aficionados will appreciate this unique example of a watch-making patrimony like no other, as is the Bovet heritage.

There is nothing Britain possesses,” wrote the Emperor Quianlong to King George III, “that the Celestial Empire can possibly need.” (Except for one thing – watches were the only foreign products that interested the Chinese elite.)

Quianlong himself had a sizeable collection. While Britain resorted to gunboats and opium to force the Chinese market to open, it was a Swiss businessman who found the key. Twenty-one-year-old Edouard Bovet arrived in Canton in 1818 and almost immediately sold four watches for 10,000 francs — about a million US dollars today.

Edouard Bovet decided to stay in Canton, establishing a watchmaking dynasty that lasted 80 years. Very soon in China, “Bo Wei” became synonymous with a watch. In the currency turmoil of late Manchu China, Bovet watches spread throughout the country as a medium of exchange.

Meanwhile, Bovet’s hometown, Fleurier in the Val-de-Travers, became the leading production center, showcasing the watchmaking arts and skills of Europe to a distant civilization. Bovet’s 19th century watches show that universal themes of peace, harmony and order were fashionable. Their imperishable enamels and robust movements ensure their survival among today’s treasures.

Bovet’s Chinese watches were decorated with split pearls and exquisite miniatures in enamels by the great masters of the time. They were the first to display a transparent back revealing the elaborately engraved, openwork movement. A seconds’ hand, unusual in a timepiece of that era, brought life to the dial. Their exotic decoration and sturdy duplex movements made them sought after not only in China, but also throughout Asia, the Middle East and America.

Today, Bovet perpetuates the tradition in decorative arts for its dials and movements that made its watches among the most treasured luxury objects of the 19th century. Decorating a movement is a delicate operation involving a vast array of tiny details, many of which are hidden, and all of which require a specialist’s hand. Movements for the Fleurier line are richly engraved in Bovet’s own Fleurisanne style.

As far as adornment of the dials, Bovet has proved this specific art was really theirs by decorating 40% of their collection with miniature paintings and engravings, and on themes offering as much diversity as originality. The creation of miniature painting on mother-of-pearl has significantly grown these last years, answering the request of clients wishing to customize their timekeeper and thus to have the pleasure to wear a unique piece of art.

Artists working exclusively for Bovet display their talent in painting a variety of themes such as portraits, animals, flowers or almost any other request.

 

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For more information contact:
Ita McCobb
Patrizzi & Co Auctioneers SA
Tel +41 22 318 28 38
e-mail i.mccobb@patrizziauction.com

Audrey Baylac
Association Monégasque contre les Myopathies / Monaco Yacht Show
Tel +377 93 10 41 70
e-mail audrey@monacoyachtshow.mc