Bovet Fleurier
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| Privately held company | |
| Industry | Watchmaking |
| Founded | May 1, 1822 |
| Founder | Edouard Bovet |
| Headquarters | Geneva, Switzerland |
| Products | Wristwatches |
| Website | www |
Bovet Fleurier SA is a Swiss brand of luxury watchmakers chartered May 1, 1822 in London, U.K. by Édouard Bovet. It is most noted for its pocket watches manufactured for the Chinese market in the 19th century. Today it produces high-end artistic watches (priced between US$18,000 and $2.5 million) with a style that references its history. The company is known for its high-quality dials (such as the Fleurier Miniature Painting models), engraving, and its seven-day tourbillon. The original Bovet watches were also among the first to emphasize the beauty of their movements with skeletonized views and highly decorative movements. Bovet watches were also among the first to include a second hand while the company has a tradition of employing women artisans, which is rare for traditional watch making companies in Europe.Pascal Raffy is the current owner.
Watch making was introduced to Fleurier by Daniel-Jean-Jacques-Henri Vaucher, an apprentice of Daniel Jaenrichard, in 1730. At the time the area was known for metal working, a natural result of the iron deposits discovered locally in the 15th century. Watchmaking flourished in and around Fleurier during the late 18th century but because production was sold on credit for the international markets, prices were undercut and economic destabilization brought about by the Napoleonic wars caused watch making in the area to decrease significantly. By the mid-19th century, Fleurier produced watches almost exclusively for the Chinese market while the municipality's current renown as a watch making centre is attributed to Bovet watches.
Édouard Bovet (1797–1849) was the son of the watchmaker Jean-Frédéric Bovet. He studied the art with his father in Fleurier, but in 1814 left home for political reasons with two of his brothers, Alphonse and Frederic, to study watch making in London. After studying in the city for a few years with the firm of Messrs. Ilbury & Magniac, Magniac sent Bovet to Canton, China in 1818. Almost as soon as he arrived he was able to sell four of his watches for the equivalent of US$1 million in 2008 currency.
The original Bovet company was founded in London in 1822 by Edouard Bovet for the purposes of manufacturing watches exclusively for the Chinese market. Some watch historians believe that the company was established in London due to the ease of shipping watches to China on the frequent ships of the East India Company. Edouard's brothers, Alphonse and Frederic, stayed in London to manage shipping; another brother, Charles-Henri, managed manufacturing in Fleurier, while Edouard developed the market in Canton.
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Wikipedia