A New Closed Salmon Dial For The Bovet Dimier Récital 15

In Bovet’s cosmos of extravagant complications, dramatic staging and lavish decorative flourishes, the new Dimier Récital 15 looks positively demure. Unlike earlier editions produced by Bovet since its release in 2014, the mechanisms powering the jumping hours, retrograde minutes and double-second complications are not revealed on the dial, which is now interpreted in a lovely salmon colour. The novel aspect of the Récital 15 is its horizontal staging of the complications, with time read from right to left. The new Dimier Récital 15 is a less ostentatious model than its siblings, resulting in a more understated and, ultimately, more wearable model.

Bovet’s Dimier family, home to some of the most complicated references of this illustrious independent brand, can be differentiated by the position of the crown at 3 o’clock; the Fleurier and Pininfarina families have a crown shaped like a bow at noon. Whether you are talking about the Récital 28 – Prowess 1, a mindbogglingly complex perpetual calendar, tourbillon, world timer with DST detection, the family of Récital 26 Brainstorm models with tourbillons, 3D moon phases et al, or the astronomical models, Shooting Star, Astérium and Grand Récital, all Dimier models revel in revealing the mechanical fireworks powering their displays.

The new Dimier Récital 15 takes a radically different direction from the openworked model we reviewed in 2018 and appears with a closed dial and an almost minimalist yet highly serene arrangement of the time indications.

Characterised by its new closed salmon-coloured dial, the rich, warm, orangey-pink tones are achieved with seven layers of lacquer. One of the idiosyncrasies of the Récital 15 is that time is read on a horizontal axis, from right to left and progressing from larger units to smaller ones. This original display positions the jumping hours in an aperture at 3 o’clock with white Arabic numerals against a black disc. Adjacent to the hour aperture is the retrograde minutes display represented by a 60-minute arc with Arabic numerals, indicated by a slim, blued steel hand. Once the hand reaches the 60-minute marker, it snaps back gracefully to zero.

Although it is not visible dial-side, the movement offers a glimpse of the double star mechanism that regulates the speed of the instantaneous jump and contributes to synchronising the jump of the hour disc with the retrograde minutes hand.

The position of the jumping hours and retrograde minutes on the right side of the dial allows the wearer to consult the time with maximum discretion. The cursive inscriptions on the dial, including the ‘5 Day’ allusion to the power reserve and the limited edition number ‘xx/30’,  are a deep blue colour matching the retrograde minutes track, and there are four recessed blued screws.

Unlike former editions with the brand’s patented double coaxial seconds complication that features a seconds counter on the dial advancing clockwise and a rear seconds hand mounted on the caseback rotating counter-clockwise, the new model has suppressed the seconds indication on the dial. Instead, the seconds are now only visible on the movement with a 20-second graduated arc indicated by three blued hands. Still in the same place, at the top of the movement, is the fan-shaped window for the power reserve indicator.

Powered by Bovet’s in-house manual-winding calibre 13DM02-AIHSMR – a modified Virtuoso II – the movement is beautifully finished. The bevelled bridges with Geneva Stripes feature cutout areas, revealing the balance wheel beating at 21,600vph and a glimpse of the barrel with its impressive 5-day power reserve.

The 42mm case with a thickness of 12.6mm is crafted in grade 5 titanium and brightly polished, including the fluted crown set with a blue sapphire stone.

Availability & Price

The new Bovet Dimier Récital 15 is presented on a blue alligator strap with a polished titanium ardillon buckle. It is a limited edition of 30 pieces and retails for CHF 61,800 (excl. tax). For more information, please visit bovet.com.