BOVET and Pininfarina have combined their skills on a new timepiece, the BOVET Aperto 1. It combines the traditional arts of skeletonising and exquisite finishing with innovative materials, resulting in a unique, modern design.
The BOVET Aperto 1 is a mechanical watchmaking masterpiece that redefines the traditional skeleton’s delicate, technical, and aesthetic role. It signals a bold new approach for the future of skeletonised high watchmaking.
Transcending the ordinary, the timepiece continues to place the intricate dance of gears and mechanics on full display while adding a new ingredient – supreme versatility.
Aperto 1: The Skeleton of the Future: Designed in Collaboration with Pininfarina
With its bold, Pininfarina-led design, the Aperto 1 blends past, present, and future. When briefing the world-renowned design house, BOVET owner Pascal Raffy requested Pininfarina’s designers to conceive a more versatile and modern interpretation of the age-old art of skeletonisation, opening everything for all to see.
He asked for simplicity, transparency, and lightness to be expressed in a thoroughly contemporary aesthetic, emphasising all-round usability and offering the timepiece’s owner a high level of flexibility.
The result is an exciting, almost playfully modern timepiece which pays homage to the open-work watchmaking genre while transforming the visual appeal of a skeletonised timepiece into a more robust expression, perfectly adapted to our modern-day environment. Extremely light, thanks to its grade 5 titanium case and well-sized at 42mm, the Aperto 1 is supremely comfortable on the wrist.
Drawing inspiration from Pininfarina’s vast repertoire, including sports cars, yachts, aeroplanes, architecture and furniture, the Aperto 1 exudes a perfect balance of elegance, savoir-faire and functionality, and a spirited sporty character. With Aperto 1, time is revealed in its purest and most contemporary form yet.
For the More Technically Minded:
A Masterpiece of Engineering and Design
The BOVET Aperto 1 is powered by a brand-new, hand-wound, open-worked manufacture movement that captures the essence of futurist high watchmaking with its impeccable design and precision engineering, reduced to its bare essentials.
Its open-worked movement has removed everything extraneous; its bridges and plates merge in the centre of the movement. Thanks to sapphire crystals on both sides, the in-house movement architecture of this timepiece is on full display.
Aperto 1 features a 42mm grade 5 Titanium case that is sandblasted in such a way that fingerprints will not show after handling. The movement itself is coated with black and tantalum grey treatments, highlighting its cutting-edge architecture. The movement components are all crafted in-house by BOVET, open-worked and finished by hand to perfection.
Each movement undergoes at least 10 hours of hand-finishing just for the plates and bridges alone. The techniques used include:
- PVD or CVD coating (depending on the colour)
- Bead blasting (challenging not to deform the components and to keep a uniform orientation of the grains)
- Graining of the flanks
- Polishing of the bevels
- Polishing of stone gouges and screws
- Perlage, circular Côtes de Genève
- Polishing, and anglage
This extraordinary level of attention to detail, beloved by collectors, should be viewed through a loupe to be completely appreciated.
BOVET’s dedicated artisans require ultimate finesse due to the movement parts being coated before assembly. Great care must be exercised not to damage the coatings in any way. One slip of a tool during assembly and the component must be discarded.
A significant and distinguishing feature of the Aperto 1 is its unique approach to interchangeable straps, inspired by BOVET’s patented Amadeo system.
Ultimate versatility is the result. Using a completely new system created exclusively for Aperto 1, the owner is able to change the straps in just a few seconds by simply activating the pushers to remove each strap and insert an alternative one. The system couldn’t be easier or quicker, underlining the attention to the needs of collectors that define all BOVET timepieces.
Each Aperto 1 comes with two straps, and additional straps may be purchased through authorised BOVET retailers.
BOVET and Pininfarina
The Pininfarina name is characterised by its rich history in design excellence and craftsmanship, developing engineering artwork for more than 90 years. BOVET echoes this ethos in horology, with generations of artisans over its 200-year history shaping incredible, meticulously detailed timepiece artistry.
The partnership between this exclusive design House and BOVET began in 2010 when BOVET owner Pascal Raffy first met Paolo Pininfarina, the chairman of Pininfarina. They soon realised how much their companies had in common, particularly a love for superbly designed, fine mechanical items.
A collaboration was born that same year, one that has resulted in several unique BOVET timepieces, including the Cambiano, the Sergio, the Ottanta, and the Ottantasei. The companies’ mutual vision and expertise become apparent in every aspect of the collaboration.
The unique skills of both Houses have led to the creation of singular timepieces that simply could not have been realised without combining the skills of BOVET’s dedicated artisans and the creative flair of the design team at Pininfarina.
The Aperto 1 extends the BOVET/Pininfarina universe into the future of open-worked timepieces and deepens the contemporary aesthetic that all Pininfarina-designed BOVET timepieces share.
“I’m very excited about this vibrant, young timepiece. The Aperto 1 embodies BOVET’s and Pininfarina’s passion for contemporary and futuristic design in mechanically exceptional timepieces. It exudes a new, modern design language, new colours, and new materials. The Aperto 1 is a departure for both BOVET and Pininfarina, creating a timepiece of great versatility while remaining true to the aesthetic senses of both Houses.
We believe the Aperto 1 will not only captivate watch enthusiasts but also ignite the imagination of those who dare to dream and are willing to push boundaries.” – Pascal Raffy, the Owner of BOVET.
“The relationship with BOVET is more than a collaboration as it is based on a common passion for beauty, craftsmanship and innovation, resulting in a collection of unique timepieces over the last 13 years. Today, we are proud to be next to BOVET presenting Aperto 1, the forerunner of a new chapter of the association of our values, able to express a new design language and a brand new experience for those who love timepieces as we do.” – Paolo Pininfarina, Pininfarina Chairman.
At a Glance
- A new timepiece emanating from the collaboration between BOVET and Pininfarina
- New movement, designed for transparency – finely-finished components, including gears and wheels, on full display
- Slightly off-centred Hour and Minute Hands
- PVD and CVD coatings of the movement components
- 42mm sandblasted Grade 5 Titanium case
- Extremely light: total weight with strap and buckle — 63 grams
- In-house balance wheel and regulating organ at 8 o’clock
- Running seconds at 6 o’clock
- 7-days of power reserve
- Power reserve indicator at 9 o’clock
- A new interchangeable strap system inspired by the Amadeo system and developed in-house by BOVET
- The timepiece comes complete with two different straps
Aperto 1 Technical Details
- Case 42mm diameter, 10,95mm thickness; sandblasted/matte finish Titanium
- Dial Open-worked dial
- Movement High-watchmaking hand-wound manufacture movement (caliber 15BMPF09-OW). 34mm, 15 lines, 5.8mm high
- Components 219
- Number of Jewels 38
- Functions Hours, minutes, seconds
- Frequency 21’600 vph/3hz
- Power Reserve 7 days
- Water Resistance 30 meters
- Strap Amadeo-inspired interchangeable rubber strap (two straps included)
- Guarantee of 5 years
You must be logged in to post a comment.