Bovet is a unique brand in the landscape of contemporary horology. On one end, it is unconstrained by anything other than its owner’s (former pharmaceutical executive Pascal Raffy) fantastical imagination; on the other, everything produced by Bovet is almost unmistakably influenced by the brand’s almost two-century-old history of pocketwatch production. This blend of perspectives, plus the fact that Bovet is also one of a select few brands that produce its own hairsprings and dials in addition to having the movement design and production all in-house, enables the brand, which produces approximately 2,000 timepieces per year, to pursue some of the most exciting innovations in today’s industry totally unburdened by appealing to a mass market or paying off social media “influencers” or ambassadors of any sort. The latest release from Bovet is actually the third and final part of a trilogy of timepieces that began with the Récital 18 Shooting Star Tourbillon in 2016 and followed by the Récital 20 Astérium in 2017. This triad of timepieces forms what the brand describes as a “poetic watchmaking narrative” that is only completed by the astronomical Récital 22 Grand Récital.

The 46.3 by 19.6 mm case functions as a horological Tellurium including a stunning, hemispherical, birds-eye view of the Earth at 12 o’clock and a flying tourbillon at 6 o’clock that represents the sun with a carriage bridge acting as fiery rays sho...