Patravi EvoTec PowerReserve

Following the Patravi EvoTec DayDate, Carl F. Bucherer is introducing two new watch models in 2010, both based on the brand’s visionary EvoTec Manufacture Concept. One of these watches is the Patravi EvoTec PowerReserve.

The brand’s high design standards remain unchanged: perfect legibility, the striking aesthetics of the cushion-shaped case with rubber bezel and deliberately understated, modern dial, and the technical design of the Manufacture movement and functional module. The innovative power reserve indication is new, along with the big date and day of the week indication and the small seconds hand.

It differs from the usual image one has of it, because it is large. Indeed, exceptionally large. And in aesthetic and technical aspects too, the restyling deviates from the conventional, so that the power reserve indication fits perfectly with the unorthodox design of the date and small seconds. Together they represent the distinctive characteristics of this new model by Carl F. Bucherer, a watch that has truly earned the additional name of EvoTec. The Patravi EvoTec PowerReserve embodies the independent visionary Manufacture Concept of Carl F. Bucherer.

The innovative Manufacture in Lucerne set itself the goal of not merely embracing existing traditional mechanisms and complications and incorporating these into their own models, but of replacing them with more intelligent and reliable solutions. Typical of the independent thinking of Carl F. Bucherer, this approach to the development of Manufacture calibers and functional modules is based on their own engineering methodology which goes under the copyrighted term “Smart SimPlexity®”.

Initial results of this completely new approach are the CFB A1000 Manufacture movement and the mechanism that controls the Patravi EvoTec DayDate’s calendar displays. To change the big date, the Carl F. Bucherer design engineers incorporated a moveable finger on the date-change ring, which makes it possible, when changing the date from the 31st to the 1st of the following month, to change only the disk with the second digit while that controlling the first digit stays still.

The Patravi EvoTec PowerReserve features both the Manufacture caliber and this mechanism, and Carl F. Bucherer rounds these off with a new type of power reserve indication. A small red hand sits on the rack that is powered by means of a differential mechanism.

It traces a gentle curve beneath an opening in the dial between the 2 o’clock and 4 o’clock index marks. When the watch is wound up, the hand moves across the scale, designed like the stage of an amphitheater, towards “High”, and as the watch winds down, it moves back towards “Low”. To indicate more clearly the power remaining in the barrel, the rack is coated in white, while the underlying surface is in a Carl F. Bucherer red that contrasts perfectly.

As the power reserve runs down, the rack with its hand moves down and the area of visible red surface increases correspondingly. It is therefore immediately clear when the watch has little power left in the power reserve. The frame of the power reserve indication is colored silver, the perfect aesthetic complement to the big date and small seconds hand. The date is prominently positioned in the upper left quadrant of the dial and is generously proportioned, even for a big date. The likewise conspicuously designed small seconds hand at 6 o’clock cleverly echoes the shape of the case, while the day of the week display at 9 o’clock rounds off the calendar display.