In the landscape of contemporary haute horlogerie, few maisons pursue complexity with the same poetic conviction as BOVET. More than just a new reference, the Récital 31 is a manifesto: a reaffirmation that high complications can be both technically profound and intuitively legible, sculptural yet wearable, romantic yet rigorously engineered.

At first glance, the watch presents the familiar silhouette of the 44 mm Dimier case, its asymmetric profile crowned by a box‑shaped sapphire crystal that amplifies depth and light. But the Récital 31 is not merely an aesthetic continuation of the Récital lineage; it is a conceptual evolution. BOVET has long been associated with grand astronomical complications — the Récital 22 Grand Récital and the Récital 20 Astérium stand as award‑winning examples — yet the Récital 31 distills this heritage into a more focused, more pragmatic expression: a perpetual calendar paired with a spherical moon phase, engineered to be understood at a glance and adjusted without hesitation.

A Perpetual Calendar Reimagined

The perpetual calendar remains one of watchmaking’s most demanding complications, a mechanical intelligence capable of navigating the irregularities of the Gregorian calendar — months of 30 or 31 days, February’s shifting length, and the quadrennial leap year. Traditionally, these mechanisms are admired for their complexity but feared for their fragility and adjustment difficulty. BOVET confronts this challenge head‑on.

One of the most thoughtful innovations of the Récital 31 lies not within the movement but on the case itself: clearly engraved corrector pushers, each labeled for its respective function. It is a deceptively simple solution to a perennial frustration among collectors — the risk of adjusting the wrong indication and disrupting the calendar’s delicate choreography. By engraving the pushers directly onto the case band, BOVET transforms a high complication into a more intuitive companion, without compromising the sophistication of the underlying mechanism.

This philosophy of clarity extends to the dial layout. The indications — day, month, leap year, retrograde date, and moon phase — are arranged with a sense of spatial logic that reflects Raffy’s insistence on everyday usability. The spherical moon, rendered with BOVET’s characteristic sculptural finesse, adds a celestial counterpoint to the calendar’s rational structure, reminding the wearer that timekeeping is both science and art.

Pascal Raffy’s Vision of Modern Complication

For Pascal Raffy, the perpetual calendar is not merely a technical achievement; it is an emotional one. “It is one of the most beautiful complications in watchmaking history,” he often notes, and the Récital 31 embodies this sentiment. His ambition was to create a 100% in‑house movement that would elevate the complication beyond its traditional constraints — a movement that would be mechanically robust, visually expressive, and intuitive enough to be worn daily.

This vision builds upon the design trajectory initiated by the Récital 30, a project in which Raffy’s children — Audrey, Alexandra, and Amadéo — played an instrumental role. Their influence pushed BOVET toward a more contemporary interpretation of high complication, one that respects the romance of traditional watchmaking while embracing the ergonomics and expectations of modern collectors. The Récital 31 continues this evolution, presenting a perpetual calendar that feels both intellectually rich and refreshingly accessible.

The New Manufacture Movement

At the heart of the Récital 31 lies a newly developed movement composed of 469 components, each hand‑finished and assembled within BOVET’s manufacture in Tramelan. Since acquiring the facility in 2006, Raffy has pursued an uncompromising commitment to vertical integration. Today, more than 95% of all components are produced in‑house — a rarity in modern watchmaking and a testament to the brand’s dedication to craftsmanship.

The pairing of a spherical moon phase with a perpetual calendar and retrograde date posed significant challenges. Space constraints, energy distribution, and mechanical synchronization required a complete rethinking of the movement architecture. BOVET had previously combined moon phases with perpetual calendars in grand complications, but never in a standalone perpetual calendar. The Récital 31 represents the first time this celestial indication has been integrated into a perpetual calendar without additional astronomical functions, making the movement both purer and more technically demanding.

The finishing is equally remarkable. For the Récital 31 and its sibling, the Récital 32, BOVET developed a new engraving motif: étoiles carrées, or “square stars.” This pattern, executed entirely by hand, requires more than 15 hours of engraving per movement. It is a tactile reminder of the human touch that defines BOVET — a maison where no assembly lines exist, and where each timepiece is shaped by artisans rather than machines.