Swiss luxury watch manufacturer Bovet has developed the Récital 28 Prowess 1 watch, which can actually adapt to summer time. How? A revolutionary roller system can be set at the touch of a button to display UTC (Coordinated Universal Time), AST (American Summer Time), EAS (European and American Summer Time) or EWT (European Winter Time) in any of the 24 time zones. Time zones are indicated by 24 on the dial Reels shown.
It’s a system that’s easy to read but surprisingly complex to design, which may explain why Bovet estimates it can only make eight a year. In fact, the 650,000 CHF (approximately $711,400) perpetual calendar and flying tourbillon watch has been in development since 2019, with Bovet scrapping the first completed version and then starting over to add the unique DST function perfect.
Patek Philippe crosses the date line
Photo: Patek Phillippe
Speaking of World Timer watches, Patek Philippe is, among other horological masterpieces, the absolute original of the World Timer complication, in which 24 time zones are all displayed in a single watch. Patek has been making these since 1937, but that doesn’t mean the company can’t still innovate the format: the new example features a subtle date display, as desired, capable of crossing – and closing – the international date line exceed.
What does that mean? On each world clock, the central hands show your local time, while the other zones are displayed on a rotating 24-hour ring offset from 24 cities around the world. If you adjust your local time zone east or west while traveling, you may cross the date line, which would normally require the date to be corrected.
On the $76,590 Patek Philippe 5530G, the date corrects either forward or backward – a simple concept but mechanically complex (and now patented by Patek), with a display that is itself innovative: a hand pointing to date numerals The outside of the dial is made of a wafer-thin glass pane so as not to impair the legibility of the other dial displays.
Montblanc’s carbon-sucking chrono
Photo: Montblanc
Carbon fiber – strong, light and with a variety of varied textures – has become a popular modern material for the luxury watch industry, which also demonstrates its sustainability properties at every (often tendentious) opportunity. Montblanc has sensibly refrained from making any specific environmental claims with its new 1858 Geosphere 0 Oxygen CARBO2, but it still shows some skill in using new technologies from the sustainability sector.
Several committees have been researching the use of captured CO for several years2 for the production of carbon fiber composite materials. Montblanc’s supplier captures CO2 from biogas production and mineral waste from recycling factories, from which a powder is obtained that goes into a nanofiber composite called Carbo2. This is used to make the case of this $9,100 sporty chronograph with Montblanc’s unusual rotating globe GMT display.