BOVET “MONO RATTRAPANTE” TROPICAL DIAL REF. 5347

Edouard Bovet was born in Fleurier in 1797. He is the son of Jean Frederic Bovet, a master watchmaker himself in Fleurier, in the Val de Travers, in the heart of the Swiss Jura. In 1814, Edouard Bovet completes his watchmaking apprenticeship and leaves Fleurier with his brothers Alphonse and Frederic for London. At the time, it is the important manufacturing centre but above all the hub of the watchmaking trade in Europe.

In 1818, Edouard Bovet leaves London on April 20th on board the Orwell, a ship of the Compagnie des Indes. He arrived in Canton on August 16th where he very quickly sold four watches for the sum of 10,000 francs, the equivalent of one million dollars today. This beautiful manufacture seizes the Chinese market with exceptional pieces, he will sell a pair of enamelled watches ordered by the emperor of China.

The model presented here is a magnificent Bovet mono split-seconds chronograph circa 1940. It is a stainless steel round case of 38 mm diameter, round pushers and screwed back. Splendid tropicalized dial with painted Arabic numerals indexes which perfectly match the luminescent sword hands. Manual-winding mechanical movement with mono split-seconds function and column wheel.

This superb chronograph from the Bovet manufacture is unique and sensational, a collector’s item.