Scarlett O’Hara, Crimson Tide, Dorothy’s ruby slippers, the ubiquitous red carpets: the color red can be found all over the history and mythology of Hollywood. Now we can add to the list this striking timepiece from Bovet Fleurier, unveiled at SIHH but taking its first bow in the U.S. at the upcoming WatchTime Los Angeles event on May 3-4 ? a new version of the manufacture’s Virtuoso V, robed in an 18k rose gold Amadeo convertible case and sporting a red guilloché dial.
The Bovet Virtuoso V is equipped with a jumping hour and retrograde minutes.
That eye-catching, Bordeaux-hued dial features a completely original guilloché motif in which a dozen layers of translucent red lacquer are applied to the decorated metal base before a final polishing that simultaneously adds depth and renders the surface perfectly flat. Bovet describes the new dial layout as more classical than the stepped arrangements found on previous Virtuoso V models (one of which I review here). The horological complications provided by the watch?s Virtuoso II caliber include jumping hours, retrograde minutes, reverse hand-fitting, and a double co-axial seconds display. On one dial, a single retrograde hand sweeps across a 0-60 minutes scale with numerals in an elegant font, while a jumping numeral in a centered aperture indicates the hour. At the start of each new hour, the numeral in the window changes, while the hand simultaneously jumps back from 60 to zero to begin timing the next hour...