JCK 2015: Bovet’s New Virtuoso VII Takes the Stage in Vegas


Bovet Fleurier introduced the first two pieces in its Complications collection in 2014. The third makes its debut at this week’s JCK Watch and Jewelry show at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas.

The new watch has a mouthful of a moniker — Bovet Amadeo Fleurier Virtuoso VII Retrograde Perpetual Calendar— and its complexity is as deep as the name implies. Like its predecessors in the collection — the Monsieur Bovet and Virtuoso V — the watch is outfitted with Bovet’s Virtuoso II Specialty caliber.

Also like previous Virtuoso models, it is essentially three timepieces in one thanks to its convertible Amadeo case, a concept pioneered by Bovet and first introduced in 2010, which enables the wearer to change it from wristwatch to pocketwatch to portable table clock with the push of a few buttons and the use of detachable straps and fasteners. And it can actually be considered nine watches in one when you consider that in each of these forms, the Virtuoso VII offers two distinctive reversible dials.

 

Bovet Amadeo Virtuoso VII - front-back

On one side, the watch displays the hours and minutes on a small central dial (black or white, polished and lacquered, with applied Roman numerals), as well as a seconds hand at 6 o’clock and the various perpetual calendar indications. Unlike traditional perpetual calendar timepieces, most of which display the calendar information centrally on the dial, the Virtuoso VII displays these indicators on the dial’s periphery. The names of days and months are printed in white or black on transparent sapphire disks that allows the subtle details of the movement (made up of no less than 489 pieces) to be viewed underneath.

The date numerals of the retrograde calendar display are printed on a ring that surrounds the hours and minutes dial. To enhance the legibility of the display, Bovet’s watchmakers chose to place the date pointer hand under the hours and minutes dial. Only an arrow is visible, peeking out from under the central dial to point to the current date and snap back at the end of each month. Completing the perpetual calendar indications is a leap-year cycle disk at 12 o’clock. A true perpetual calendar, the Bovet Amadeo Virtuoso VII requires no adjustments for 400 years.

Bovet Virtuoso VII w/glass
Bovet Virtuoso VII - dial CU

Flip the case over and you can see the second dial, with the hours and minutes represented on an off-center subdial at 12 o’clock and an even more expansive view of the complicated, manual-wound movement, notably its côtes-de-Genève-enhanced co-axial “seconds chassis,” a mechanism patented by Bovet that enables the running seconds to be displayed on the same axis and on both sides of the movement. As on the opposite-side dial, the seconds are indicated by a hand at 6 o’clock. This dial also features a power-reserve indicator that displays the Virtuoso’s astounding five-day energy supply.

Bovet Virtuoso VII - city

The Bovet Amadeo Fleurier Virtuoso VII Retrograde Perpetual Calendar is available with either an 18k rose fold or 18k white gold case, 43.3 mm in diameter (there are also version with diamond-set bezel, like the white-gold model that we photographed above). It is fitted with a full-skin alligator strap with an ardillon buckle in matching gold. Each watch also comes with a gold or rhodium-plated silver chain for pocketwatch conversion. Prices are $79,000 for rose gold ($88,600 with diamonds) and $82,800 for white gold ($92,000 with diamonds).

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