One hundred and ninety-five years of tradition and originality, the story of the beginning buffet watches

Exactly 195 years ago, on May 1822, XNUMX, the BOVET Company was officially incorporated in London.

However, the story began several years earlier, when Jean-Friedrich Buffett decided to send his sons Frederic, Alphonse and Edouard who worked in the watch industry to London - which was the main commercial hub for watchmaking at the time - to learn how to trade.

In 1818, Edouard Bovet left London for Canton to become a pioneer in selling pocket watches. The Fleurier watches produced by the Bovet brothers soon won the admiration of the Emperor of China, his courtiers and the Chinese nobility, who soon became ardent aficionados of these creations.

They proved so successful that as early as 1820, the Maison began producing its watches in Fleurier while continuing its trading operations and overseeing its administrative work from London. Edward moved to China, where he lived until 1830 to ensure that his watch collectors' needs and desires were met as closely as possible.

Finally, on May 1, 1822, the first company agreements were written and registered in London.

The Bovet brothers went on to write some of the greatest chapters in the history of fine watchmaking by elevating the decorative arts to a standard that remains unrivaled to this day. For a century, the entire valley around the village of Fleurier (otherwise known as Val de Travers) reaped the fruits of the Chinese passion for watches. Thanks to the audacity and success of the Buffet brothers, a true regional industry was born.

Until the end of their reign, the Bovet brothers succeeded in displaying the essence of the decorative arts of watchmaking while continuing to innovate at the same time. They are credited with the shape of the transparent case back, for example, which enabled watch collectors to admire the ornate movements like never before.

Throughout the twentieth century, BOVET was distinguished by numerous innovations and patents. A BOVET pocket watch dating from circa 1920 holds the absolute record for autonomy with a power reserve of 360 days. Other notable achievements include the 1930 patent on the stand watch that paved the way for the Amadeo® system, and the Mono-Rattrapante Chronograph whose simplified and more reliable mechanism is still taught in the curriculum of all Swiss watchmaking schools.

Once Pascal Raffy took over the BOVET company in 2001, the Maison negotiated the first two decades of the XNUMXst century using the same values ​​and spirit that guided its course in the XNUMXth century. And in just fifteen years, the house has awarded two manufacturers

Its movement, dial and case ensure optimum quality, who have designed and developed the iconic Amadeo® case, which has applied for nearly fifteen patents, and created many completely new watch calibers.

To celebrate this anniversary, Pascal Raffy decided to focus the 2017 collections on the theme of space, which is absolutely inseparable from the concept of time.

Through calendars, watches with astronomical functions, and materials such as Aventurine glass or meteorites, the subject evokes a philosophical dimension of horology that pays homage to the watch collectors who have placed their trust in BOVET watches since 1822.