Bovet 1822 Battista Tourbillon: it’s a hyperwatch

If anyone can be credited with transforming the motor car from mere conveyance into a rolling work of art it must be Battista ‘Pinin’ Farina, the Italian designer who was born just in time to bring his brilliance to bear on the golden age of car development.

Pininfarina’s rise began in 1935 with a futuristic design for the Alfa Romeo 6C 2300 that turned the car into an ‘aerodynamic berlinetta’. The Lancia Aprilia followed in 1937, after which the hits kept on coming: from the Cisitalia 202 and numerous 1950s Ferraris to more run-of-the-mill models born from the ’60s collaboration with BMC that produced cars such as the Morris Oxford, Austin Cambridge, MGB GT and Morris 1100.

Under the guidance of the founder’s son Sergio, Pininfarina also created the Peugeot 504 Cabriolet and Coupé and the Rolls-Royce Camargue of 1975.

But the company was ailing by 1991 when his son, Andrea, took over as CEO. He addressed the situation by expanding Pininfarina’s remit to make it a one-stop shop where concepts could be engineered from start to finish.

Andrea Pininfarina died in 2008 after his scooter was struck by a car in Turin, but during 17 years at the helm his strategies saw profits leap, making the firm one of the most important service companies in the automotive industry as well as a front runner in creating designs in other fields.

The latter included a tie-up with watch house Bovet, with which Pininfarina created a series of innovative watches that could be transformed for use as wrist, pocket or desk timepieces. The long-term association made Bovet a shoo-in to co-develop a watch to complement the Battista electric hypercar (left)

Since they’ll be buying the world’s first electric, luxury hyper GT with a price tag of £2m, it’s only right that Battista owners should be offered a special watch – and the 45.6mm Bovet Battista Tourbillon is it.

It features transparent crystals front and back, hands, bridges and dials inspired by shapes found on the car and Pininfarina flags on the power reserve dial. The result is a structure that’s said to evoke ‘an abstract representation of Battista’s bodywork’.

The Battista watch – 90 of which will be made – also has a specially created movement incorporating a two-sided flying tourbillon with a patented system that uses a spherical differential to wind the 10-day power reserve in double-quick time.

And in keeping with the Battista’s ecofriendliness watches are supplied on ‘vegan’ rubber straps, while the possibility to ‘bespeak’ many aspects of the car is reflected in the availability of cases made from rose gold, titanium, platinum or an alternative material of choice. Because at these prices, what sir wants, sir invariably gets…

Bovet 1822 Battista Tourbillon, £235,000 (approx)
bovet.com

French brand Reservoir now has a cult following since it was launched in 2017 by former HSBC banker François Moreau who, with former Rolex and TAG Heuer staff, set out to create a watch range based on instruments found in cars, planes and boats. Its latest effort, the titaniumcased Kanister, takes the green detailing on its dial from the clocks of a Porsche 356. The display has a digital hour reading with a retrograde hand that ‘revs’ to 60mins and flicks back to zero.

Reservoir Kanister, from £3750
reservoir-watch.com

Roger Dubuis, Lamborghini’s watch partner, is celebrating the arrival of the 2022 Countach with the Excalibur Countach. It is, of course, respectfully less expensive than the car, which has a starting price three times higher. Only eight will be made, with mineral composite fibre cases and not one, but two flying tourbillons to keep the hand-wound movement on track. Buyers will be invited to Roger Dubuis to create their own watch.

Roger Dubuis Excalibur Countach, £523,000
rogerdubuis.com