Here is our comprehensive review the BOVET Récital 28 Prowess 1.
BOVET Récital 28 “Prowess 1”
Throughout the course of watchmaking history, breakthroughs have been made to solve specific problems. For example, the tourbillon was invented in 1800 to counter the effects of gravity on precision when a pocket timepiece stays in one position, like in a pocket or on a table over the weekend. Also invented in the 1800s, the chronograph came to being out of the need to measure phenomenon like heart rate or events such as horse racing. It wasn’t until the 1900s that world travel became popular and more accessible, and with it came the demand for watches with travel time complications such as the dual time, the GMT or ultimately, the worldtimer. The worldtimer watch is, on paper, the perfect companion for global travel as it displays the current time across (at least) 24 major world time zones simultaneously. But when you consider the many vagaries of world time, it is far from perfection. One of the major sources of the quirks in world time is Daylight Saving Time (DST). World time watches have largely not been able to adapt to the vagaries of when DST starts and ends in different countries and which countries do not change (only about 70 countries use some form of DST).
Enter the Récital 28 Prowess 1, BOVET’s solution to the modern timekeeping challenge posed by DST. The brand has plenty of experience with multi-time zone timepieces, but the development of the Récital 28 Prowess 1 still took more than five years. Here, we bring you the details on what makes the watch so unique and our honest thoughts.
The Case, Dial, and Hands
The Récital 28 Prowess 1 utilises BOVET’s iconic Dimier “Writing Desk” case which is literally shaped like a writing slope. It measures a substantial 46.3mm in diameter and 17.85mm in height at its thickest point. The watch is available in three metals: 18K red gold, platinum, or grade 5 titanium. As one can imagine, this isn’t going to be a discreet timepiece on the wrist, and nor should it be.
The “Writing Desk” case has always been one of fine watchmaking’s most fascinating, but this is BOVET – what the case showcases within is always more fascinating. The Récital 28 Prowess 1 is no different. At first glance, the dial looks busy and complex. But if you spend another five seconds looking around, you will find that it is in fact incredibly clean for the amount of information display, highly organised, and surprisingly intuitive to read. At the top sits the flying tourbillon, ever mesmerising with its blued cage.
On this watch, it is not the highlight – the rather ingenious world time system is. The system consists of 24 rollers arranged radially. These rollers each have four positions, all adjustable through the crown: UTC, AST (American Standard Time), EAS (Europe and America Summer Time), and EWT (European Winter Time). Pushing the crown rotates the cylinders individually by 90 degrees, so every time zone can be individually set. But that’s not all – the Récital 28 Prowess 1 also has a perpetual calendar displayed via rollers too (in specific, the date, leap year indication, and month). When they get to the last day of the month, the date rolls back like a slot machine while the month (and leap year if it’s December) simply rolls forward. Together, the complications on the Récital 28 Prowess 1 offer a visual treat literally like no other to its wearer. This is what makes mechanical watches fun and worth staying up for at midnight.
The Movement
Driving the Récital 28 Prowess 1 is the new 744-part, 51-jewel manufacture calibre R28-70-00X. The 38.00mm x 13.30mm hand-wound movement beats at a stately 18,000vph and boasts a whopping 10 days of power reserve. The highlight of the movement is, of course, the world time system that uses rollers. According to BOVET, the idea is based on a design by Leonardo da Vinci and was chosen because the technical department needed a solution where gearing wasn’t too tight. With this system, once the roller gets into position in its aperture, it is held in place by its spring, and the roller is freed from the gearing. Also worth waxing lyrical is the patented double-sided flying tourbillon where the escapement is completely on one side of the center fixation point, with the cage carrying the balance wheel on the other side. The cage, which has been redesigned, is BOVET’s lightest ever with 62 components (39 new) weighing a total of only 0.35g.
Decoration and finishing on the movement is ornate and done by hand, for all 744 components according to the manufacturer. The plate is decorated with perlage and Geneva waves while the bridges are delicately hand-engraved. Visible also through the sapphire crystal are heat-blued screws to secure the many components. Importantly, interior angles can be seen on major structures of the movement. This is the most difficult type of angle to produce and is evidence of a movement that has received tender loving care from watchmakers as it is currently not produceable with a machine.
The Competitive Landscape
The once enigmatic world time complication is now more accessible than ever. However, innovative, artisanal ones remain a rarity. The Récital 28 Prowess 1 ticks all the boxes that make it a truly interesting timepiece. Not only is it ornately hand-crafted, its roller system is a first and an effective solution to some of the shortcomings faced by regular world timers. The Récital 28 Prowess 1 is subject to limited production; only a total of 8 pieces can be made annually as each movement takes weeks to assemble. The watch comes in 18K red gold, 950 platinum, and grade 5 titanium.
The most eye-catching world time watch from this year so far has to be the Louis Vuitton Escale Worldtime Tourbillon. Compared to the Récital 28 Prowess 1, the Escale’s display and mechanics are much more classical. That said, it is as user-friendly (everything adjustable via crown) and intuitive as it gets for a classic worldtimer. Much like the BOVET, the most striking part of the watch surprisingly isn’t the flying tourbillon, it’s the world time display. The flags encircling the dial are not painted in ordinary pigment but realized entirely in enamel, with each hue applied by hand in a delicate sequence of more than 40 firings in five different layers. Each dial takes 80 hours to make. The price for such a visually stunning piece? USD239,000.
Final Thoughts
There never a dull moment when it comes to BOVET’s Récital series and the trend continues on an upward trajectory with the Récital 28 Prowess 1. Barring its atypical case shape and ultra-ornate design, the watch is in fact a great “set-and-forget” travel watch thanks to its ability to adapt to DST, perpetual calendar, and 10-day power reserve. Most would wear it as a showpiece, but it’s great to know that it’s not just a pretty face, but also genuinely useful.
