WT_2009_06: PROFILE: BOVET FLEURIER

PROFILEBovet FleurierGeneva that appealed to cultivated Chinese.Unlike the extremely luxuriouswatches of their era, Bovet timepieceswere affordable for upper-class Chinesecivil servants and merchants.The watches’ movements, often finelyengraved and chased, could be viewedthrough panes of glass in the casebacks.Their central seconds hands, which advancedby one leap per second, were anotherspecial feature. Bovet adapted hisproduction to suit the Chinese custom ofgiving valuable gifts (such as statues, vases,horses or even concubines) in pairs. Inthis way, he was frequently able to selltwo identical watches to the same purchaser.If one timepiece malfunctioned, aspare was on hand. This was most welcomebecause many months would passbefore a watch sent to Switzerland for repairmade its way back to China.Edouard Bovet returned to Fleurier ahero in 1830, accompanied by his fouryear-old,Macao-born son, Edouard-Georges. He was not there long becausehe immediately got caught up in localpolitics. Neuchâtel at that time was ruledby the King of Prussia and Bovet was partof a movement agitating for independence.When an attempted revolutionagainst Prussian sovereignty failed in December1831, Bovet fled to Besançon,France. There he continued to manufacturetimepieces with the help of other exiledwatchmakers. The lordly home inFleurier, which his brothers arranged tohave built for him according to his writteninstructions, remained empty at first;it serves as a community center today.Edouard’s brothers and nephews, allshareholders in the family business, tookcare that the pillars of the Bovet businessin Fleurier, London and Canton continuedto flourish. The firm was re-registeredin 1840 as “Bovet Frères et Cie” with ashare capital valued at one million francs.Edouard died in 1849, living long enoughto see the triumph of the Neuchâtel republicand the retreat of the Prussians in1848. There was an orderly transfer ofpower in the Bovet firm. Manufacturingcontinued in China. At the ExpositionUniverselle in Paris in 1855, the firm wona gold medal for an identical pair ofwatches ordered by the Chinese emperor.A sketch of the Jura Mountainvillage of Fleurier in the 19thcenturyFounderEdouard Bovet160 WatchTime December 2009