It was at the beginning of the 19th century when Edouard Bovet (1797–1849), a Swiss watchmaker and founder of the brand, emphasised on decorating his watches with gemstones, miniature paintings, and engravings. Bovet established his brand Bovet Fleurier SA on 1st May, 1822, in London, UK, specifically to make watches for the Chinese market. The Emperor of China was one of its very first collectors, with the country eventually also becoming a major market for the brand, so much so that Bovet timepieces came to be called ‘Bovets of China’.

The standout aspect of his creations was the fact that Edouard Bovet decorated each and every part of his watch—the case and the movement, both front and back—with intricate yet subtle engravings. As a result, the exhibition casebacks of these watches, which gave a view of the movement, became a highlight. This is an aspect that continues to this day at the brand, with all Bovet 1822 movements being hand-finished and hand-decorated.

The word ‘Virtuoso’ takes its name from the title given to the most skilled and celebrated musicians of the world, and for Bovet 1822, all of the hands creating timepieces at the maison are akin to virtuosos crafting art. The various Virtuoso collections—starting from Virtuoso III to Virtuoso V, VII, VIII (Chapter Two), and the latest being The Virtuoso XI—represent this very emotion.

There are two iterations of the Virtuoso XI, a highly polished one and an engraved one, with or without diamonds. Our cover watch is the latter, adorned with brilliant-cut diamonds on the bezel, and had more than 60 artisans working on it, engraving every part of the watch and its movement. That being said, one can understand the amount of work and time one timepiece requires, and so the brand clarifies that only one or two pieces of the Virtuoso XI are produced per month. The watch comes in a 44mm 18K white-gold writing slope case. This iconic case, designed by Pascal Raffy, tapers or declines from top to bottom (6 o’clock), to offer an enhanced view and improved readability of the dial. Over the 12 o’clock position is the brand’s signature bow, engraved, which serves as a protector for the cabochon crown that lies just below it. The beauty to admire here is the re-designed and skeletonised manual-wound Virtuoso VIII manufacture movement.

The movement in this watch has a total of 36 jewels and 283 components, each one of them is hand engraved and decorated. The engraving has been done on both sides and is delicate, so every required part is carefully and precisely cut and extracted out, while making sure that sturdiness is not compromised. And for this reason, the movement of Virtuoso VIII, launched in 2017, was chosen—it was re-engineered to be open-worked to fit the design criteria of The Virtuoso XI. However, it already had the fine details that the new movement required, such as bridges and plates that fit the thinness criteria. And given the skeletonisation, the grand date window was removed and the gear train repositioned.

It is important to note that in watches with skeletonised dials, there isn’t much room for adding extra craftsmanship to the movement as it is kept as compact as possible. For The Virtuoso XI, the makers at Bovet 1822 planned to keep space in between the bridges, wheels, and plates to allow for engraving, and as a result, there is the finely detailed, gorgeous calibre that can be admired from both sides of 

the watch.

On the technical side, the tourbillon, which marks its significant presence at 6 o’clock, is driven by a single barrel, which gives the watch a whopping 10-day power reserve. The frequency is 18,000 vph—to run at this frequency and offer such a high reserve with a single barrel requires ultra-careful winding, and so here the movement makers have used the brand’s patented spherical differential winding system and the multi-gear three-dimensional teeth of one of its pinions. This winding system allows the crown to fully wind the mainspring in half the rotations as it would generally require in a watch, and there’s no friction and extra pressure on the gears.

Traditional watchmaking and traditional engraving go hand in hand, which is what Bovet 1822 followed when the brand first started decorating its timepieces in the early 1800s. The maison was also the first to create exhibition casebacks to give a view of the highly stylised movements, and also the first to fully engrave its movement, including the minute train bridge (called pont de minuterie). This entire process of engraving, the case and the movement combined, was done freehand by the artisans of Bovet 1822 and took about 60 hours for The Virtuoso XI. This decoration is the brand’s very own ‘Fleurisanne’ motif, which has graced its timepieces for decades. The motif reflects the tree leaf pattern found on centuries-old Greek columns, and its name evinces the roots of Bovet, a village in Switzerland called Fleurier, the place where it was born. The power reserve barrel of the movement is also engraved with the same motif, but because of its thinness, it is laser engraved to protect it from any damage.

The engraving, on both the front and back of the open-worked dial, can be admired through the robust sapphire caseback. The hands on the white dial are blued, and the small seconds can be found at 10 o’clock. The water resistance offered is 30 metres. Complementing the white-gold case is the black alligator leather strap completed with a white-gold folding clasp set with diamonds.

The Virtuoso XI is not just a watch but an honour for the artisans of Bovet 1822, who, with a human touch, have transformed a watch into a thing of beauty. “I am proud to introduce The Virtuoso XI, which combines contemporary high watchmaking with artisanal hand-finishing and hand-engraving. This piece is an ode to Bovet’s artisans, who take such pride in every step of the process,” says Pascal Raffy.