Over the past 23 years, BOVET has specialized in the perpetual calendar complication, which is one of the most challenging in the high watchmaking pantheon of complexity. At BOVET, the perpetual calendar is often combined with other complications, like in the award-winning Récital 22 Grand Récital and Récital 28 Prowess One.

In other timepieces, the perpetual calendar stands alone, only paired with a retrograde date feature, just to make it even more complicated. Examples include the Virtuoso III, the Virtuoso VII, and… the Récital 21.

This year, BOVET introduces a new version of the Récital 21, this time with a sapphire crystal dial available in three captivating hues – green, blue, and brown. This dial gives the Récital 21 a completely different character – stylish, modern, comfortable… and a bit mysterious. The dial provides a window into the inner workings of this high-watchmaking manual-wind movement.

Designed for Readability

Every BOVET timepiece is designed to display the necessary information in the most readable way. With the Récital 21, the minute and hour hands are located in the centre of the timepiece, providing more space in the periphery for perpetual calendar information.

The sapphire crystal dial, coloured and slightly smoked, gives a glimpse of the complex mechanism powering this timepiece. You can see the day of the week and the month coming, along with the gears, pinions, and wheels making things move.

Except the date, indicated by a retrograde hand that rotates around the hours and minutes, the discs display the days and months in vertical apertures at 12 o’clock and 6 o’clock respectively, while the leap year cycle is displayed in a circular aperture at 3 o’clock.

The new sapphire crystal dial puts all of the perpetual calendar mechanism on display, so you can see how everything works, while not distracting from the purpose of the complication – to display the information you truly need. Getting the sapphire crystal exactly the right colour with the right amount of transparency without any distortion is a challenge, but one BOVET realized to perfection.

The sapphire crystal dial showcases BOVET’s artisanal virtuosity. Coated liberally with Super-LumiNova, the key information glows brightly at night and is strikingly modern.

To add to the visual impact, BOVET’s watchmakers developed a mechanism that slows down the date hand during its retrograde jump, a dramatic effect that can best be appreciated when the last day of the month changes to the first. A treat worth staying up until midnight for, especially on New Year’s Eve.

Turning the timepiece over to the movement side, you can see the patented double coaxial seconds mechanism, as well as the power reserve indicator, which, when fully wound, displays a five-day power supply from a single barrel. The power reserve is optimized by the complete hand-finishing of all the components, and the in-house balance spring and regulating organ, entirely designed and manufactured in the BOVET workshops.

One Pusher Advances All

To further enhance the collector’s ease of use, Mr Raffy and the Maison’s technicians introduced an ingenious system that streamlines adjustments to all the indications. There are, of course, dedicated correctors for the day and date, day of the week, and month functions, and the day and date corrector advances every indication on each push.

So, if you want to adjust your timepiece after it has stopped for several days, you simply have to press this unique corrector until the correct date is shown. All the other functions of the perpetual calendar (day of the week, month, leap year) are synchronized at the same time.

Grade 5 Titanium Case

The new sapphire crystal dial version of the Récital 21 is available in Grade 5 Titanium in BOVET’s iconic writing desk case. As a result, the timepiece sits perfectly on the wrist, presenting the time to you.

Even the most demanding collectors will be awestruck by this elegant timepiece’s style and ease of use, as well as its complex technical components, viewed through the new coloured-sapphire crystal dials.

Thanks to these new dials, the new Récital 21, available now, is truly unrecognizable, bringing a fresh and modern look to one of BOVET’s favourite high complications – the perpetual calendar.

We invite collectors to “Look Beyond” with the Récital 21, where Swiss handcrafted excellence and engineering brilliance converge.

At a glance

Perpetual Calendar with Retrograde Date
New Sapphire Crystal Dials in Blue, Green, and Brown
5-Day Power Reserve
Polished Grade 5 Titanium Writing Desk Case
40 mm diameter, 15.40mm thickness sloping to 10.25mm
464 components including 37 jewels
21’600 vph/3hz frequency
5 Year Warranty