Bovet Orbis Mundi Watch Review
The Bovet Orbis Mundi features a unique, yet highly intelligible world time display, crafted in aventurine glass. The model’s hand-wound movement has a 7-day power reserve and encompasses über-refined hand-finishing. Mark McArthur-Christie shares his thoughts on this paragon of fine watchmaking, expressed in his very own, light-hearted style.
World time
It’s time we organised an Escapement research trip to Noumea. It looks as though there are some beltingly good restaurants, enough bars with views of blue ocean to provide decent pre-lunch drinks, interesting museums and even a little tourist train to save the effort of walking between them. It might be the most tenuous attempt at ‘work-related travel’ yet, but with a bit of luck we can persuade the accountant that this little island in the South Pacific is of major horological interest even though there isn’t a single watchmaking atelier in sight.
The only watchmakers on Noumea are the handful doing repairs to the island’s timepieces, but the place features on some seriously top-drawer watches. That’s because it’s the centre of the GMT +11 world time zone (pace, Brisbane). Take a look at this new offering from Bovet (Switzerland, GMT +2) and you’ll see it between Sydney and Fiji as one of the World’s 24 major time zones.
It’s been one of the paradoxes of Covid-19 that as we’ve been forced to travel less, many firms have started working internationally from home. So rather than schlepping to a meeting on another continent it’s common to have a call with various virtual-attendees, based in four or five different time zones, all run from one place. OK, it’d be tough to justify a Bovet Orbis Mundi as a business expense when your laptop will tell you in two clicks what the time is in Boston, but there are few other more elegant – or neat – ways to do it.
Bovet Orbis Mundi shows the time simultaneously in multiple time zones
The problem the Bovet Orbis Mundi solves is that of knowing the time simultaneously in multiple time zones. A standard GMT watch is handy enough for telling you the time in two or, with a bit of bezel twirling, three places, but when you’re trying to work out the best time for a call with Guangzhou, Dubai, London and Warsaw it’s a bit more of a challenge. Bovet has come up with a swanlike way that makes it all look simple and serene on the surface with all the cleverness hidden under the dial.
Bovet Orbis Mundi – dial
Actually, that’s not quite true. There’s a great deal of cleverness going on dial-side, too. Look at the way the world time dial shows local hours and minutes, world time loci and world time hours and minutes, all on the same dial. Each world time destination has its name formed into a wedge of text, graduated from large(ish) to a tiny point size. This idea popped up first on the earlier Bovet Recital 26 Brainstorm Chapter Two, where the destination text is radiused on the surface of a hemisphere, but does it work as well here where it’s on a flat plane? It shouldn’t, but it does – albeit with a rather different character. For those of a certain age it may even evoke memories of cinema seats and “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…”
Bovet – masters of the power-reserve
The world time dial sits on its own aventurine disc, fixed to the main dial with two heat-blued screws. That main dial is also where you’ll find the power reserve indicator at 3 o’clock. This shows the whole week’s worth of power held by the single fully-wound mainspring. Bovet is a fan of serious power reserves; the International Museum of Horology in La Chaux-de-Fonds has an early 20th-century Bovet pocket watch with a 370-day reserve. The other opening in the dial shows you the running seconds in a way that embraces the swanlike theme of the whole watch. Rather than a standard circular running seconds dial, or even a retrograde, the running seconds ‘dial’ is a third of a circle, cut from another piece of aventurine and again secured with two blued screws, marked from 0 to 20, across which moves an indicator with three seconds hands on one pinion. Behind it, you can see the gear train, balance and escapement all at work. It’s a wonderfully elegant solution. There’s no bezel either, so you have an unobstructed view of the whole plot.
Most mortals, on finishing the engraving and guilloché work on the main dial plate, would simply retire on the strength of it. The Bovet craftsmen simply carry on and produce another 59 watches. There’s the background hand-and-machine work, then hand-engraving for the lotus flower motif on top. Anywhere there is a gap, there is a separate piece of polished edging plate that contrasts with the dial’s frosting. Presumably, Bovet’s engravers enjoy a fine Christmas lunch each year at Il Lago with the proceeds from their swear jar; even the tiniest of slips would result in the dial heading for the metal recycling bin.
Bovet Orbis Mundi – setting the time
Given all this complexity and loveliness, you might think that setting the Bovet Orbis Mundi would be a bit of a task. You know; write to HQ in Fleurier on a sheet of vellum, hand-rolled, tied with a ribbon, requesting the presence of one of Bovet’s dedicated Orbis Mundi setting team with their leather case of special tools. Nothing of the sort. Here’s how to do it:
- Wind your watch.
- Turn the crown counterclockwise so the city you want is at 12
- Turn the crown clockwise to 1140, then forwards to the correct time
- Er, that’s it. You’re done.
Sorry, but you don’t even deserve a coffee for such minimal effort. All the swanny paddling gets done for you by the movement. In fact, now you’ve set your watch, all that’s left to do is turn it over and take a look through the sapphire display caseback.
Calibre 19 Thirty
You’ll see the manual-winding 15BM01HU (engraved ‘Calibre 19 Thirty’), running at 21,600 vph (3Hz). Through the caseback you can see the three plates as well as the balance cock and first wheel bridge. Bovet has neatly, visually balanced the balance cock with a separate bridge for the first wheel that tapers away to almost nothing. There’s even a cutout for the click-spring. The plates are finished with anglage, circular Côtes de Genève motif and gold-filled engraved text explaining that your watch will run for seven days without winding, has thirty-five jewelled bearings and is adjusted to six positions. Plenty of countersunk blued screws for contrast too. There’s engine-turning sitting a little deeper into the case. Appropriately for a firm that has such strong links to making pocket watches, the movement resembles that of a pocket watch and is all the better for it.
Bovet Orbis Mundi – Swiss Handcrafted
It’s all brand’s own work too – Bovet explains that it produces ‘just about everything in-house’. With an unusual and thoroughly welcome directness, it states, “Due to the fact that BOVET produces 95% of the components that go into its timepieces (the only things not produced in-house are the barrel springs, sapphire crystals and the straps), the House uses the term “Swiss Handcrafted” instead of “Swiss Made,” as the Swiss Made barrier, 60%, is too low.” Seems pretty reasonable, doesn’t it?
Bovet Orbis Mundi – case
Everything fits into a 42 mm case and you have the choice of grade 5 titanium or 5N 18ct rose gold (the ‘5N’ tells you the amount of copper in the alloy – the more copper, the rosier the gold). Despite all the horological wonderfulness inside, it’s certainly not a hockey-puck at just a flea’s breath over 11mm thick. And the sapphire cabochon on the crown? Yep, that’s real, as are the cabochons that top the strap bolts (0.72 of a carat, since you’re wondering).
Closing thoughts
There are other world timers but probably none as idiosyncratically ingenious as this one. The detail of the design, engineering and finishing make it very special indeed. It manages to combine proper, useful world time functionality with the sort of minute finishing that makes people smile. So the last word deserves to go to Bovet’s owner, Pascal Raffy; “You will enjoy every day to discover a new detail depending on the light.”
Further reading
Technical specification
- Model: Bovet Orbis Mundi
- Reference: NTHU011, 18K red gold
- Reference: NTHU002, titanium
- Case: Diameter 42 mm; height 11.25 mm; water resistance 3 ATM (30 metres); sapphire crystal to front; exhibition case back.
- Functions: Hours; minutes; world time with 24 time-zone and 24 cities of the world Indicator; small seconds; power reserve indicator
- Movement: Caliber 15BM01HU; hand-wound movement; frequency 21,600 vph (3 Hz); power reserve 7 days; 249 components.
- Strap: Blue full-skin alligator with steel folding clasp with 18K or titanium buckle
- Price on application