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Limited Edition of 60 Movements - 9-day Flying Tourbillon - Tellurium-Orrery and Retrograde Perpetual Calendar
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In 2016, Bovet unveiled the Récital 18 Shooting Star tourbillon, which revolutionized watchmaking design by combining its movement with a registered design asymmetrical case. A year later, Bovet reprised this celestial timepiece with the Récital 20 Astérium , which borrowed the Récital 18's innovative case, original architecture, and intuitive display of astronomical indications. The Récital 22 Grand Récital tourbillon forms the third chapter allowing us to observe the three heavenly bodies that set the pace of our lives: the sun, earth, and moon.
This grand astronomical theater has been presented by Bovet in a Tellurium-Orrery, with the sun represented by the flying tourbillon, whose carriage bridge evokes fiery rays. The striking hemispherical earth rotates on its own axis and shows the hours on a natural 24-hour cycle. Finally, a spherical moon orbits the earth according to the exact length of its synodic period, i.e. 29.53 days.
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To accentuate the splendor of the sun, the tourbillon carriage has been raised above the surface of the movement. Its original patented construction is characterized by its central attachment, endowing the piece with exemplary chronometry, while achieving a peerless level of transparency. Meanwhile, the five arms of the titanium carriage bridge surround the regulating organ. This three-dimensional representation of the sun showcases the finish of the bridge's five arms, rounded by hand, which subtly frame the timepiece's celestial decoration. By rotating once every sixty seconds, the tourbillon indicates the seconds by a hand affixed directly to the carriage wheel and travels over a scaled twenty-second sector.
The earth is represented by a hemisphere on the Récital 22, the surface of which is adorned with an engraved and hand-painted map, on which the oceans, mountains, deserts, and forests are executed in painstaking detail. The difficulty of working on a hemispherical surface is compounded by the use of a technique unveiled by Bovet in 2017, in which the artisan incorporates luminescent substances into the miniature painting. In this way, the earth becomes a radiant highlight in the dark, as the earth itself appears in the heavens above. The artisan's work continues with extreme delicacy, applying several successive layers of transparent lacquer to the
globe's surface before it is polished. To enhance the sense of realism, the artist painted clouds and air currents onto the globe's surface. As they are separated from the earth's crust by the thick layers of lacquer, the clouds appear to be floating in mid air.
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As in reality, the earth naturally performs one anti-clockwise rotation every 24 hours. At the base of the globe, a graduated scale displays the hour by means of a three-dimensional polished titanium hand, situated between the tourbillon and the globe.
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The scale of the artisanal and artistic craftsmanship present on these hemispheres is reason enough to consider each of the 60 timepieces in this limited edition a unique piece. Yet Pascal Raffy wanted to offer collectors even more. He therefore wanted Bovet to allow collectors to choose the orientation of the painted world map so that the collector's chosen location would be positioned on the earth-sun axis when the timepiece displays midday. This customization option means that each movement and timepiece is assembled once the collector's special requests have been received. This customization also makes it possible to determine where it is currently nighttime in the world thanks to the black and white coloring of the ring surrounding the earth.
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This concave circular indicator, widened at the bottom to display the hour, demonstrates the masterful skill of the micro-mechanics responsible for its manufacturing. The moon is represented by a sphere that makes a complete orbit once every 29.53 days exactly, which corresponds to the synodic period of our natural satellite. The high-precision mechanism that powers the moon and moonphase display, also visible on the Earth's concentric ring, means that it will register a discrepancy of just one day every 122 years. The sphere is divided into two parts: one black, while the second is engraved with the textured surface of the moon. The engraved sections of the second half are filled with a luminescent substance, which makes it possible to clearly see which part of the moon is directly illuminated by the Sun.
To bring further harmony to this celestial spectacle, the retrograde minute and power reserve indications are displayed on hemispherical sectors curved to mirror the globe. Sapphire glasses situated in their centers magnify the mechanisms underneath, each seemingly transcending the spatial confines of the case.
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Lastly, a circular aperture is positioned on the left-hand side of the tourbillon carriage. Its metal bezel also contains a magnifying glass, which makes it possible to read the date displayed on a glass disk circulating on the lower section of the movement. To emphasize the date, a ring machined directly from solid luminescent material highlights the inner edge of the aperture. It is symmetrically positioned in relation to the upper cone ring and the power reserve wheel, which is made from the same material.
Reversing the timepiece and looking through its large sapphire crystal, the viewer beholds a vast bridge decorated with circular
Côtes de Genève, centered around the tourbillon's axis. Various apertures open onto the hour, day, month, and leap-year indicators, and a glass date disk guided by the bridge, which is displayed on both sides of the movement. This combination
of indications acts in concert as a sort of mechanical brain that governs the perpetual calendar . This ensures optimum accuracy in the display and setting of the time reading andall the Tellurium functions.
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Specially designed and developed for the Grand Récital, the perpetual calendar is brimming with innovative features, including the original addition of a patented, double-sided date disk display. It is driven by a retrograde mechanism with a micrometric rack, also patented, which optimizes operation while reducing the amount of required space. The abrupt accelerative and decelerative forces acting on the date disk, when combined with the inertia of its mineral crystal material, led the watchmakers to develop a regulator train that dissipates the energy when the disk retrogrades.
In addition to the traditional correctors used to adjust each indication individually, they designed and developed a pushpiece located between the upper lugs that simultaneously adjusts all the
timepiece's functions. Therefore, if the timepiece has been stopped for six days, for instance, this pushpiece can be simply pressed six times to perfectly adjust the perpetual calendar and Tellurium functions simultaneously.
Technical Specifications:
The case, in 18kt red gold or in platinum, measures 46.3mm x 19.6mm. It has double sapphire crystals and it is water resistant to 30 meters.
Movement is the Swiss manual-wind Bovet in-house caliber 17DM03-TEL beating at 18,000 vph and with a power reserve of 216 hours (nine days). A double-sided flying tourbillon was chosen to regulate this caliber. This patented construction improves chronometric performance by significantly reducing the lever arm at the point of attachment and intelligently distributing mass. The sprung balance and escapement are positioned on either side of the central attachment point in an a atypical architecture that also enhances the piece's aesthetics, as it renders the tourbillon's attachment to the movement practically invisible. Meanwhile a variable-inertia balance wheel, paired with a balance-spring manufactured in Bovet's workshops, ensures the accuracy of the movement. Functions are: hours (24hr), retrograde minutes, seconds on the double-sided flying tourbillon, precision moonphase, retrograde double-sided date, Power reserve. Retrograde perpetual calendar on the back.
It comes on a black full-grain alligator leather strap with an 18kt red or white gold buckle.
MSRP is $469,800 for the 18kt red gold version and $502,200 for the platinum version. They come with a five year warranty.
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