FeatureFather’s Day Special: How Pascal Raffy Of Bovet Succeeds At Fatherhood

In the last two decades that he has come to own Bovet Fleurier, certain business decisions Pascal Raffy took were immensely successful as these had some intrinsic connection to his three children. Unlike the Swiss horological world that comprises mostly family-run watchmaking businesses, the Raffy patriarch was an outsider, with familial ties traceable to Lebanon and the French Ardennes region. Brought up in Switzerland, he studied political science in Paris while waiting tables. It was only after marriage and return to Switzerland in May 1992, to join his wife’s family’s pharmaceutical business that his fortunes drastically improved. But at age of 38 in 2000, Pascal announced early retirement to spend time with his children. This act of fatherhood worked in his favour for it set in motion a chronology of events that ultimately resulted in his acquisition of brand Bovet, which goes back to 1882. On Father’s Day, we take a look at Pascal Raffy’s attempts to involve his progeny and classify Bovet as a watchmaking family business.

Succeeding At Business And Fatherhood

Pascal had decided to retire after a candid conversation with his eldest daughter Audrey, then eight years old, who expressed her sadness about never finding him at home due to his work commitments. Pascal was deeply unnerved. “Your blood becomes frozen, blue, yellow, violet… all the colours,” said Pascal, summing up his reaction to her pining, in an interview with The National News. The voluntary retirement, however, ended in a few months after his banker put Pascal through a blind touch test over five Swiss timepieces, hoping to entice Pascal into investing in these languishing Swiss brands. Pascal felt drawn to one watch, a Bovet, for the rare placement of the crown at 12 o’clock instead of the usual three o’clock, aside the ornate appearance. He was smitten, especially since it brought back memories of Sunday dinners with his grandfather, a watch collector who always threw light on attributes that make a good watch. Thus Pascal bought over Bovet in the hope to resurrect the then moribund brand. Since then, Bovet’s ostentatious and high-complication timepieces have wowed audiences. And to think a child’s lament started it all.

The Raffy Progeny And Their Influence On Bovet Timepieces

Since his initial days with Bovet, Pascal’s decisions have witnessed the intertwining of the personal and the professional. A case in point is the 14th-century castle Château de Môtiers near Lake Neuchâtel. Initially, Pascal was not keen on buying the property. But on learning it was the original home of the Bovet family, he immediately bought the place and converted it into the brand’s headquarters and manufacturing workshop.

Inside the Bovet watchmaking headquarters and workshop, Château de Môtiers, Tramelan, Switzerland

Bovet watchmaking headquarters and workshop, Château de Môtiers, Tramelan, Switzerland

Artistry and Finesse at the Bovet watchmaking headquarters and workshop, Château de Môtiers, Tramelan, Switzerland

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Another indicator of fatherly affection is Pascal’s decision to name Bovet watch lines and watch components after his three children. Post his acquisition of the watch components manufacturer Swiss Time Technology (STT) in 2006 and its conversion to an in-house movement manufacture, Pascal renamed it as Dimier 1738, merging the Fleurier horological brand Dimier with his children’s birthdays. He named the Miss Audrey collection after his daughter Audrey Raffy; Miss Alexandra after her younger sister; and Bovet’s patented Amadeo convertible system after their younger brother.

Miss Audrey

The pièce de résistance of Miss Audrey and Miss Audrey Sweet Art timepieces are their sugar crystal dials; each granule painstakingly coated in special paint to form a gradient or patterned dial. The latest Audrey watches display dials made resplendent with guilloche, shimmery aventurine glass, and even miniature painting as spotted on the Miss Audrey Sweet Fairy model. The watches are attached to synthetic satin or full-skin alligator leather straps along with a fine metal or beaded chain to accommodate the whims of the Amadeo system. Diamonds on the bezel, crown protector and hour markers add to the overall look.

Bovet Miss Audrey Shop The Collection

Discover all the finer details of the Miss Audrey Sweet Art watches here

“My father likes to call his children sweetheart or sweetie, and the idea came from that. It took our watchmakers a lot of time to figure out how to make it work—from getting the right calibration to working out treatments so the sugar wouldn’t melt,” revealed Audrey in the July 27, 2022, interview with The Voice Of Fashion. In an interview with The Watch Guide in 2022, Audrey had spoken about the naming of the collection, “I would have never named a timepiece after myself. But my father is a romantic at heart, and he decided to name collections after all his children.”

Miss Alexandra

Although the Bover Récital 23 does not mention ‘Miss Alexandra’ in the title, features like its egg-shaped case (43mm by 28.7mm), diamond-set bezel, off-centred sub-dials; skeletal dial and caseback, heart-shaped hands, and rotor hand-engraved with Fleurisanne design, makes the watch appear like an upgrade of two earlier iterations from the Miss Alexandra line—Bovet Récital 9 Tourbillon and Bovet Récital 11. The Bovet Récital 9 Miss Alexandra serenades for its moonphase sub-dial, monocoque hand-engraved dial and caseback rife with intricate Fleurisanne design, while the Bovet Récital 11 Miss Alexandra replaced the tourbillon with an aventurine glass home time sub-dial. The Bovet Récital 23 bears slight tweaks, such as a bezel with round instead of baguette-cut diamonds and a diamond-studded ‘writing slope’.

Bovet Récital 9 Miss Alexandra serenades for its monocoque hand-engraved dial and caseback, rife with intricate Fleurisanne design

Bovet Récital 11 Miss Alexandra replaced the tourbillon on the dial for an aventurine glass off-centre home time sub-dial

Bovet Récital 23 version seems like an updated version of the Miss Alexandra line with minor tweaks such as round instead of baguette-cut diamonds and a diamond-studded ‘writing slope’

₹1,28,80,000

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Amadeo

Certain Bovet lines like the Virtuoso V and VII, Monsieur Bovet, and Miss Audrey are powered by the patented Amadeo convertible system, which allows the watch to shapeshift from a wristwatch to a pendant watch, pocket watch, or a table clock. Bovet also created special Amadeo watches like the Amadeo Tourbillon, notable for its intricate Fleurisanne engraving on the dial and a seven-day power reserve.

Amadeo watches from Bovet like the Amadeo Amadeo® Tourbillon are notable for their intricate Fleurisanne engravings and seven-day power reserve

Bovet lines like the Virtuoso V and VII, Monsieur Bovet, and Miss Audrey are powered by the Amadeo® convertible system, which allows the watch to shapeshift from a wristwatch into a pendant, pocket watch, or a table clock

Bovet Fleurier

₹2,62,90,000

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To read more about this exquisitely engraved tourbillon timepiece, click here

The Bovet Legacy Continues

Based on a 2016 interview with Discover Out Loud, it is easy to gauge Pascal’s yearning for his entire brood to join the brand. “If Alexandra joins, the mixture of Audrey and her would be amazing. Audrey is the artist and Alexandra is the organised and disciplined one. I would love the two to work together! In a longer future I also very much hope that my son Amadéo will join them.” While Alexandra and Amadéo’s roles in Bovet are probably still undecided, Audrey continues to share her father’s fixation with haute horlogerie, and was even made the brand’s first general counsel and vice president in 2020.

In the interview with The Watch Guide, during her 2022 visit to the Bovet boutique in DLF Emporio, New Delhi, Audrey recounted her growing years of watching her father build Bovet to the brand’s current glory. She was quoted saying: “My father had Bovet for 20 years, and I had seen the level of dedication and work that he had put into it, and I just felt like it was my responsibility to join him and see how I could help him out…. Even before that, there was always some amount of involvement. Over dinner table conversations and such, my father would show us his designs, take our opinions. Or with Instagram, for instance, he always asked me for my opinion. But really becoming involved, reading the daily emails, attending watch fairs and meetings started about a couple of years before I started at the brand officially.”

Audrey Raffy, general counsel and vice president, Bovet Fleurier

Pascal Raffy, sole proprietor, Bovet Fleurier

Before his children, his collection of luxury timepieces or fleet of expensive cars pale in comparison. The patriarch makes this sufficiently clear in the same interview to The National News: “You know when a baby is born you have in the clinics these plastic [wristbands]. I have the three of them (his children’s) in the front of my desk in my house. They are my most beautiful possessions.”

Pascal also uses the word ‘children’ to elucidate a point. “You should be able to take a loupe and know it is Bovet, no matter the price. Otherwise it is like treating two children differently. I accept that this means I will have varying profit margins,” Raffy was quoted in an interview to Forbes in August 2017. Pascal also considers his Bovet watchmakers as his children, going by his quote in the July 4, 2016, interview with the Discover Out Loud: “I always say that I have three blood children, my legitimate children, and 128 natural children, my artisans.”