In Best of the Best, we honour the brands and people behind the most covetable products. This year, the Bovet Récital 28 Prowess 1 is bestowed with the prestigious title of “Watch of the Year”
When watchmaker Louis Cottier invented the world-timer complication in 1931, he created a mechanical wonder that allowed a new era of travellers being able to read time everywhere on the planet simultaneously. But until 2024, watchmakers couldn’t figure out how to display differences in daylight saving time (DST). After all, some countries spring forward weeks earlier than others.
This year, Bovet introduced a solution. The Récital 28 Prowess 1 accounts for variations in American Summer Time (AST), European and American Summer Time (EAS) and European Winter Time (EWT) and displays the 24 global time zones in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). It cracks the DST problem by applying the cities and time zones to 24 rollers that have four positions (UTC, AST, EAS and EWT) read on an additional roller to the left of the world-time indication. To change from one mode to another, you simply press the pusher in the crown.
Not satisfied with the complexity of a world’s first, Bovet went a step further and threw in a perpetual calendar as well as a flying tourbillon composed of 62 separate parts weighing just 0.35g. Packed into the 46.3mm case is a new movement that achieves a 10-day power reserve. Almost a century after its invention, the world timer can finally solve a portion of international scheduling issues—just in time for discussions about abandoning DST altogether. But if you consider horology an art form, this is certainly a museum-worthy piece.
