OUR WORLD AND EVERYTHING IN IT

Bovet is a watch brand that believes in going the whole nine yards, or not at all. The epic Récital 28 Prowess 1 demonstrates how the brand does this.

- Alvin Wong

It has been several years since I met Bovet's owner, Pascal Raffy. But the times we met, the steely eyed and buttery-voiced entrepreneur always left me slightly dazed; bowled over by his charismatic conviction, as if he was a remnant of some horological royalty still doggedly defending what is honourable in fine watchmaking.

"What's the point of doing something half-heartedly? Who are you really fooling then?" I remember him asking rhetorically, the questions soon soon extending their significance beyond his brand and its watches to how we live our lives.

Since acquiring Bovet in 2001, Raffy, who was a lawyer by profession, has been determined to re-establish the 202-year old brand to its rightful place as a port of call for watch aficionados. Just as in the early days, when the company made ornate timekeepers and music boxes for the nobles and royalty in China during the Qing dynasty (these objets d'art remain treasured exhibits in the Forbidden City's museum), the Bovet of today commands the appreciation of a discerning few, rather than the adulation of the masses.

But in order to do so, Raffy had to do it "the right way", even if the process promised to be arduous. This meant acquiring and remodelling Bovet's historic home, a 14th-century castle (Château de Môtiers, where the final assembly of the timepieces takes place) in 2006. That same year, Raffy also bought three companies that specialised in movement, case and dial manufacturing so that Bovet would have full creative and quality control over each timepiece that rolled out of its workshop.