Watchmaker Bovet and Italian design house Pininfarina have revealed their latest collaboration: a titanium watch with a skeletal design and clever interchangeable strap system.
Called the Aperto 1, the watch is the latest model to come from a collaboration that began back in 2010. Available with details in blue or yellow, the Aperto 1 is a manually-wound mechanical watch with an all-new Swiss movement and a case made from sandblasted grade five titanium.
Protected by sapphire crystal on the front and rear, the skeletal design of the watch’s intricate movement is on full display. A set of simple white hands point to the minutes and hours, and the 38-jewel movement promises seven days of power reserve. That’s a whopping 168 hours, which is well above the usual 40-70 hours offered by most mechanical watches. A power reserve metre is fitted at the nine o’clock position.
The case measures 42mm by 10.95mm and is attached to a clever interchangeable strap system, where the rubber straps can be quickly removed and swapped without tools.
Bovet says the Aperto 1 is water resistant to 30 metres, so it’s safe to wear during day-to-day activities but probably shouldn’t spend too much time in the pool. Thanks to its lightweight titanium construction, the watch and strap weighs just 63 grams.
An interesting design quirk is how the crown is located at the 12 o’clock position. It doesn’t look to be particularly accessible with the strap attached, so I imagine Bovet and Pininfarina encourage owners to first remove the watch, then take the strap off (with a push of two buttons) then adjust the time. That huge power reserve will come in handy here, as you’d need to not wear the watch for an entire week before it runs out of juice and the time needs resetting.
That said, I suspect the kind of watch collector interested in the Aperto 1 will be delighted at the prospect of spending a moment removing the strap and setting the hands each time they wear it.
Not a limited edition timepiece, the Bovet x Pininfarina Aperio 1 is priced at CHF 48,800 (about £45,000).
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