The traditional handcrafts of Bovet
Buffy AcaciaI’ve never shied away from admitting that Bovet is one of my favourite watch brands, mostly for its unabashed embrace of opulence. Its catalogue is full of watches that feel like they’d be at home on the wrists of 18th century royalty, had wristwatches been the style back then. Bovet isn’t just style, though. It’s also got a fascinating history that spans the globe, and now resides in the Château de Môtiers in Switzerland, producing in-house calibres with genuinely innovative complications. The piece of the puzzle that truly links the current iteration of the brand with its origins however, is the amount of handcrafted artisanal work.
With an annual production of approximately 1,200 watches, Bovet is by no means a large-scale manufacture. The figures get even smaller when you consider that between 30-40% of those watches are unique pieces for clients, and not “standard” production models. Consider that fewer than 10 companies in the world produce hairsprings for mechanical watches, and that Bovet is one of them, and you’ll start to comprehend the level of intricacy involved with this brand. Every watch is created with an immense amount of skill, and even if they’re not unique pieces, they’ve been through the hands of individual artisans rather than an assembly line of CNC machines.
To begin with, let’s consider the engraved movements. Even when you hear that all of the engraving is done by hand, you might assume that there’s plenty of machine assistance in the process. Well, aside from the digital magnification the engravers use to minimise eye strain, it really is just about holding the movement in one hand, and carving it up with a hand-held graver in the other. There are some light surface scratches to indicate where those deep gouges are meant to flow, and it all comes together as a seamless and sculptural artwork upon completion. It’s not something you can truly appreciate with the naked eye, so keeping a loupe handy will help you to bask in its perfection.
Fleurisanne, meaning “in the style of Fleurier”, is the name given to Bovet’s most prominent style of engraving. It largely features floral motifs that seem to flow organically despite an utmost respect of balance and symmetry, also maintaining the correct proportion of those elements between the movement, dial, and case. Fleurisanne engraving was also incredibly popular throughout the 1800s, especially on the skeletonised pocket watches for which Bovet was so renowned.
Bovet’s gorgeous array of in-house dials is breathtaking as-is, whether it focuses on a material like aventurine or a process like lacquered guilloché. However, if you’re going the custom route and you’re not so interested in skeletonisation, there is another decadent option. Painted dials are practically as old as clocks themselves, and being such an important tradition, of course it’s in Bovet’s arsenal of handcrafts. These miniature paintings may be of a personal portrait, an animal, or a natural scene, but they’re all done with minuscule brushes and several applications of coloured lacquer. The use of lacquer rather than enamel is deliberate, because it’s much less delicate, and can also achieve sharper details. Between each layer, the lacquer must be kiln-fired and polished down to a uniform thickness for a consistent sheen. If you can imagine it, Bovet can create it.