The Virtuoso II Specialty Caliber that equips this new timepiece first appeared in the Bovet 1822 collections in 2014 and it equips today no less than six models. After Monsieur Bovet and Virtuoso V, the Virtuoso VII is the third timepiece in the Complications collection imagined and redesigned around this caliber. It is is adapted to the functionalities of the AMADEO® case - a convertible case system that allows the timepiece to be transformed into a reversible wristwatch, a table clock or a pocket watch - and it is capable of displaying the hours, minutes, seconds and any conceivable complication simultaneously on its two faces.
Like the collection’s other models, the Virtuoso VII presents two distinct faces on its emblematic case.
The first face displays the hours, minutes, seconds and power reserve, as well as all the indications relative to the perpetual calendar.
Traditionally, calendar information is presented centrally on the dial, leaving the hours and minutes to be displayed on the perimeter. Pascal Raffy, owner of Bovet, decided to do quite the opposite: the hours and minutes are displayed on a central dial.
This left the periphery of the dial free to accommodate the day and month indicators. Their exceptional size and diametrically opposed position allowed for the use of larger inscriptions. To further enhance legibility, the names of the days and months have been printed in white or black (depending on the color of the dial) on sapphire discs. This transparency allows the subtleties of the mechanism to be admired without cluttering the space. In place of jaded apertures, black or white plates now distinctly reveal the name of the current day and month.
The retrograde calendar display is positioned outside, yet concentric to the hours and minutes dial.
For aesthetic reasons and to further enhance legibility, the calendar hand is placed beneath the hours and minutes dial. Only its arrow is visible, appearing mysteriously on a graduated scale.
Finally, the leap year cycle disk, positioned at 12 o’clock, completes the calendar information, mirroring the seconds hand positioned at 6 o’clock.
This atypical construction enables the complexity of the perpetual calendar mechanism to be admired together with the decoration of the tiniest surfaces.
On the second face of the Virtuoso VII, the hours and minutes dial, off-centered at 12 o’clock, gives prominence once again to the movement, decorated here with circular Côtes de Genève centered on the seconds chassis. The seconds chassis is a patented mechanism developed by Bovet, which allows the seconds to be displayed on the same axis and on both sides of the movement, all the while inversing their direction of rotation. This side of the movement also features a seconds hand elegantly positioned at 6 o’clock. Finally, a power reserve indicator displays the energy amassed by the barrel spring, which alone provides five days of autonomy.
For watchmakers hand-adjust the functions resulting from the interactions between each of the movement’s 489 parts. This drive is regulated in minute detail by the Bovet watchmakers to obtain exemplary chronometry in this movement, whose fastest wheel turns twelve times a minute and whose slowest wheel needs a full eight years to complete a single revolution.
Available in red or white gold, the Virtuoso VII Retrograde Perpetual Calendar offers a black or white lacquered dial and can be personalized to meet the specific requests of collectors.
