Sunday, May 1, 2022, marked 200 years since Bovet's founder Edouard Bovet, a watchmaker from Fleurier, Switzerland, established the Bovet watch company in London. It is believed that the founder was an avid traveler and sold four complicated watches during his trip to China that would today cost more than $1 million each. Due to this remarkable history, the House of BOVET is inextricably linked to travel. The House's collection is complete with several double-, triple-, and world-time timepieces, all of which have been very successful with collectors worldwide over the last 20 years. To celebrate the company's bicentennial anniversary, Bovet has introduced a timepiece like the New Orbis Mundi. This new timepiece showcases all 24 time zones at a glance which can be adjusted entirely through its iconic real-sapphire-cabochon-topped crown.
Bovet has never been a company to shy away from experimenting. In the recent past, Bovet's Aiguille d'Or-winning Récital 22 Grand Récital complication from 2018 was a perpetual calendar and a tellurium-style world time display. In 2020, Bovet introduced the Récital 26 Chapter Two, an award-winning timepiece at the 2020 GPHG for 'Mechanical Exception', featuring a universal time sub-dial at three o'clock, taking the multiple time zone display a step further. After two years of meticulous development, the company has introduced another marvel – the in-house calibre 15BM01HU.
Orbis Mundi, Latin for 'the world', comes in an ergonomic 42mm Grade 5 titanium or 18k red gold case. A slightly domed Aventurine glass covers the dial. The world time displays take the centre of the watch, surrounded by a 24-hour ring in Arabic numerals. A local time display is on the final ring in 12 Roman numerals. Turning the crown counter-clockwise will set the hours and minutes, and turning it clockwise will set the unique 24 world time zone dial. The fourth wheel is visible from the large cut out at the traditional six o'clock with its three-armed second hand and a 20-second mark off the bottom of the watch face. The power reserve indicator is located at three o'clock, highlighting the incredible and beneficial seven days of power reserve with one single barrel running at 3 Hz that utilises all 246 components together. Exquisitely finished, the Orbis Mundi stands out for its ease of use and emblematic Fleurier case, a true symbol of two centuries of watchmaking excellence. The watch boasts a slim profile of 11.25 mm, providing optimal comfort to the wearer.
The sapphire glass of the screw-down back lets collectors appreciate every detail of this finely finished manual-wind manufacture movement, polished, angled, and decorated like the House of BOVET's high complications.
