Not all images were able to load for printing. Please close the print window and try again. The Bovet Battista Tourbillon, In Collaboration With Automobili Pininfarina
What’s better than having an exclusive watch to match your EV Hypercar?
It was meant to be, writing about the Automobili Pininfarina Battista EV hypercar just over a week ago. With the car being crowned the best concept or prototype car during the 2021 Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este, Swiss independent watchmaker Bovet now reveals a watch made in collaboration with Automobili Pininfarina, dedicated to the introduction of Italy’s most powerful sports car ever made. This is the spectacular and technical Bovet Battista Tourbillon.
The story of Pininfarina started about 90 years ago when Battista “Pinin” Farina launched Carrozzeria Pinin Farina in Turin, Italy. The design and coachbuilding company would become an industry legend, and produce special Lancia, Fiat, Isotta-Fraschini or Alfa Romeo cars. Some of the most beautiful cars in the world have been penned by the design studio, and it’s regarded as one of the very best in the business.
The company is better known as Pininfarina and still exists today, owned by the Mahindra Group. Next to the design studio, the Mahindra Group has decided to launch Automobili Pininfarina, dedicated to creating high-performance EV cars for the wealthy. The first product to materialize is the Automobili Pininfarina Battista EV hypercar, at the moment Italy’s most powerful sports car, producing close to 2,000bhp (more details here).
Although Bovet has worked with the Pininfarina Design studio before, this marks the first collaboration with Automobili Pininfarina. In honour of the Battista hypercar, Bovet 1822 has created a limited edition watch; the Bovet Battista Tourbillon. Combining elements of other Bovet creations with styling cues from the Battista, the result is a spectacularly technical piece. Presented in a run of 90 pieces – 30 in polished titanium, 30 in red gold, 30 of platinum – it’s very likely some of these will find their way to one of the 150 lucky people to own this beast of a car.
The Bovet Battista Tourbillon has a 45.60mm case made of polished grade 5 titanium, red gold or platinum, sandwiched between two boxed sapphire crystals – but it remains surprisingly thin, at 11.95mm. Underneath the crystal is a dial, or better yet, elements of a dial as almost the entire movement is visible. Asymmetrical central hands, styled after elements of the car, indicate time on a suspended hour track in blue. The hands and indices, as well as the three tips on the tourbillon cage, are accentuated with Super-LumiNova.
Positioned at 6 o’clock is the patented double-sided tourbillon escapement, doubling as a small seconds indicator. The remaining indications are the 10-day power reserve and the big date on the left and right subdials. These subdials are shaped like the number 90, in remembrance of Pininfarina’s 90th anniversary, and decorated with a Triangolo pattern taken from the car.
Turning the watch over reveals more of the complex, in-house developed Calibre 16BM01TVGD. The two-tone bridges and plates, all finished to Haute Horlogerie standards, are shaped similarly to the top profile of the Automobili Pininfarina Battista. The movement uses a single oversized barrel with an impressive 10-day power reserve. This is wound through a patented differential winding system, reducing the number of turns through the crown in order to fully wind it.
The second patented element is the double-face flying tourbillon, running at slow 2.5Hz frequency and seemingly floating in mid-air. This is fully made in-house as well, including the hairspring. The entire movement is constructed using 400 components.
The Bovet Battista Tourbillon is worn on a vegan rubber strap in black, with blue accents and a pin buckle. The watch is priced at CHF 285,000 (in titanium) and it is limited to 90 pieces in total – 30 in titanium, 30 in red gold and 30 in platinum.
For more information, please visit bovet.com.
