Rogers and Hammerstein, Bogart and Bacall, Siskel and Ebert. Some pairs are just perfectly matched, and the latest collaboration from Bovet and Pininfarina brings a true masterpiece of timepiece craftsmanship – the Ottana Tourbillon.
Histories of creativity and refinement collide in the Ottana. Bovet 1822, manufacturers of haute horlogerie for the past 188 years, have long held esteem for their timeless mission for perfection. Collectors worldwide flock to Bovet’s antique and contemporary timepieces for their attention to detail in miniature painting, hand engraving, and unique mechanisms. Pininfarina, an Italian icon of automobile, nautical, and aeronautical design, has led a modern aesthetic approach to vehicle design for three generations. Now in its 80th year of operation, Pininfarina takes its expertise to fine watchmaking. Together, these designers form an alliance ripe with technical virtuosity, ingenious production, and beautiful detail.
The Ottana’s innovative design offers four watches in one. Housed in an AMADEO convertible casing, the watch can be worn on the wrist with either face displayed. Removing the band, the owner can attach a titanium chain to carry the piece as a pocket watch. Additionally, the lower bezel – fit with a hinge to fold outward – acts as a stand to use the timepiece as a small table clock. Each manipulation of the Ottana’s design is possible without the use of any tools to quickly satisfy the desires of the owner. Worn as a wrist watch, the Ottana’s primary face displays hours and minutes in its primary layout. With the face reversed the timepiece carries a single hand along with hours, half-hour, and quarter-hour markers. The single hand design alludes to the first constructed pocket watches used over half a millennium ago and acts as a simplistic foil to the intricate display of the traditional two-hand face.
Paying homage to Pininfarina’s 80 years, the Ottana’s designers crafted a tourbillon that completes a full revolution in 80 seconds rather than the standard 60. The extended rotation of the tourbillon required the ingenious engineering of a three-wheel intersecting train. Aside from the main train, two reduction trains separately control the seconds-crown and the tourbillon, each perfectly designed to keep the separate rotation times. In addition to this technical construction the rim of the tourbillon’s balance wheel is modeled in the shape of a figure eight. Set inside the circular ring of the tourbillon, this subtle detail again celebrates Pininfarina’s history. Finally, the tourbillon’s upper pivot moves through eight segments – rather than following the seconds hand – and points to eight phrases from the original founder to revel in the designer’s eight decades of manufacturing excellence.
Aside from the timepiece’s striking function, the houses of Bovet and Pininfarina took painstaking care into designing the decoration of the piece. Pininfarina’s designers recommended the use of a wide range of grays to smooth the depth and volume of the watch while still showing the intricacy of each moveable part. In total, the timepiece features 56 decorative shades of gray and anthracite specially tested to maintain performance and perseverance of color over time. In example of true craftsmanship, the Ottana’s tourbillon cage is ordained with circular bipolar Clous de Paris decoration – an exquisite achievement of decorative showmanship.
Not to be limited to the actual design of the watch in celebrating Pininfarina’s history, the timepiece will be limited to a collection of 80 pieces. Bovet and Pininfarina, however, have pledged to continue their harmonious partnership to continue producing a new creation each calendar year.
PHOTO CREDIT: BOVET
