To anyone with even a passing interest in astrology, the mere mention of a retrograde movement typically prompts mild feelings of dread. That’s because when a planet goes retrograde — an optical illusion that makes it appear as if the planet is moving backward, or “retrograde” in its orbit — delays or misunderstandings, apparently resulting from its diminished power, are said to intensify. Mercury, the planet that rules communication, goes retrograde several times a year, reliably causing a good deal of hysteria.
In horological circles, however, a retrograde function — defined by the Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie (FHH) as “an hour, minute, seconds or calendar hand which moves across a scale and, at the end of its cycle, returns immediately to zero to begin again” —has the opposite effect on both watchmakers and collectors, which is to say it tends to inspire a sense of wonder and delight.
“It allows you to be creative in the making of the watch and the execution of the dial,” Isabella Proia, head of sales and senior international specialist, watches at Phillips in New York, tells WorldTempus. She attributes the appeal of retrograde functionality to two factors: “It adds a layer of complexity and challenge to how the movement is made. It also opens up a different way of telling time. And something watchmakers really enjoy doing is finding alternate ways to tell time.”
Take the poetic complication timepieces produced by Van Cleef & Arpels. An early example dates to 2010, when the brand debuted the Lady Arpels Pont des Amoureux watch. The model depicts two lovers gliding toward each other on a Parisian bridge. Thanks to its double retrograde movement, the woman’s advance on the left side of the dial marks the hours, while the man’s advance on the right marks the minutes. At noon and at midnight, they come together for a kiss. The piece, which went on to win the prestigious Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG) prize in the ladies’ watch category the year it was introduced, is widely considered an icon of retrograde storytelling.
Earlier this year, Van Cleef & Arpels unveiled a much-anticipated follow-up, the Lady Arpels Bal des Amoureux Automate watch, which continues the love story that began on the bridge. This piece, which shows the couple enjoying a night out at a guinguette, a Parisian open-air dance café, is equipped with an automaton movement and a retrograde display that mimics the original.
Of course, not all retrograde watches are quite this romantic. Patek Philippe makes two storied retrograde models, Ref. 5013 and Ref. 5050, that boast a more classic, gentlemanly take on the feature. The latter, a perpetual calendar wristwatch introduced in 1993, is especially well-regarded, even though many experts consider it to be underappreciated.
Vacheron Constantin is credited with producing two of the watch world’s most seminal retrograde watches, the 1936 Don Pancho, a tonneau-shaped watch with a retrograde date commissioned by a Spanish mining magnate, and the Mercator, a 1994 model equipped with a double retrograde timekeeping system — for the hours (jumping) and minutes (dragging) — that pays homage to a very specific theme.
Logan Baker, writing for Phillips, explains that the latter wristwatch was designed “as a tribute to Gérard Mercator, a 16th century Flemish geographer, on the 400th anniversary of his death. The watch’s dial featured an interpretation of one of Mercator’s world maps. The design of the hour and minute hands was intended to invoke the appearance of a compass, continuing the cartographic theme.”
For all their backward-looking functionality, however, retrograde watches also appeal to the industry’s most futuristic makers. Exhibit A, from 2009: the UR-CC1 “King Cobra” from the avant-garde brand Urwerk. Inspired by a 1950s Patek, the King Cobra displays the time on two linear scales, as opposed to the more traditional circular indication, in a blackened casing that’s anything but classic—further proof that despite its centuries-old appeal, the retrograde feature continues to move watchmaking into the future.
