Bovet makes extraordinary watches. That is an absolute fact.
But what happens when Bovet decides to take its extraordinary know-how in craftsmanship and put it to good use in a svelte stainless steel watch that is simultaneously the brand’s new entry-level timepiece?
What comes out in the end is extraordinary. And at a price of just 16,800 Swiss francs (approximately $17,500).
The first timepiece to emerge from the new Ferdinand Berthoud brand is called FB 1. It is intended as a natural continuation of the work accomplished by Ferdinand Berthoud. “It has to be something special,” said the man behind the reborn brand, Chopard’s Karl-Friedrich Scheufele. “It’s a big responsibility to make the first Berthoud wristwatch meaningful and contemporary.”
In 1993, the Musée International d’Horlogerie in La Chaux-de-Fonds (MIH) created the Gaïa Award to honor the memory of one of the earliest partrons of the museum, Maurice Ditisheim. In sharp contrast to the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève, which can be seen more as the Academy Awards or Oscars, the Gaïa has often been called the Nobel Prize of the watch industry. Anita Porchet is not the only deserving laureate this year. Giulio Papi and Jonathan Betts have also been honored.
Ferdinand Berthoud was born in 1727 in Switzerland. When he passed away in 1807, after having lived most of his life in Paris, he left behind a vast body of work in marine chronometers, clocks and watches, tools, scientific measuring instruments, and written publications including dozens of specialized books and treatises encompassing 4,000 pages and 120 engraved plates. The search for precision was his life. But why are we bringing this up now?
Vacheron Constantin’s history has been filled with extraordinary, complicated, and elegant timepieces.
In honor of the introduction of the world’s most complicated timepiece on September 17, 2015, let’s stroll through the annals of the horological history books to take a gander at the five most complicated pocket watches the traditional Genevan “maison” has produced throughout its 260-year history, beginning of course with the record-holder itself, Reference 57260.
Eight years ago, Vacheron Constantin began building a mechanical work of art destined to become the world’s most complicated watch under the aegis of its bespoke watch division.
Atelier Cabinotiers offers connoisseurs the chance to commission a custom-made watch according to their own tastes and designs (but within the boundaries of the brand’s style). Reference 57260 came into being thanks to one of the world’s foremost collectors, a great connoisseur of horological art. This collector specifically requested that Vacheron Constantin create world’s most complicated timepiece for him.
Richard Mille is an extreme automobile enthusiast. That is not a secret. In fact, you could almost say that Mille’s brand has been built around his love of automobiles and racing. So, it was a natural fit for the brand to partner with car event specialist Peter Auto in recreating the Chantilly Arts & Elégance classic car show.
A visit to Dallas, Texas gifted me with a surprise: I came across a very large painting simply entitled ‘Watch’ at the Dallas Museum of Art. Further inquiry into its painter, Gerald Murphy, revealed a fun historical anecdote and a bit of a mystery. Why did Murphy paint a giant Cubist impression of two watches in 1925, and which watches were they?
The original Rolls-Royce Silver Dawn saw the light of day in 1952. This ultra-famous name in the Rolls-Royce repertoire has been used only 28 times since then. Fast forward to September 8, 2015, when Rolls-Royce did something unprecedented: it streamed the press conference of its latest creation on the worldwide web. The brand-new Rolls-Royce Dawn is officially a product of the digital age!
At Grieb & Benzinger, blue is something of a corporate color when it comes to decorating the unique and exceedingly rare watches that the boutique brand based in a historic castle near Stuttgart produces. Hermann Grieb once told me how he and Jochen Benzinger came upon the idea for it. “The idea for this color came to us after an exhausting day of work in a local vineyard while enjoying a cool drink,” Grieb explained in his mischievous deadpan heavily inflected with local dialect. “The setting sun and the colors it created in the northern Black Forest sky simply inspired us.” The new Blue Chip collection prominently features this luxurious blue color.