Qps are a complicated thing. Not because they're one of the high end complications brands use to showcase their abilities. But rather because they are imperfect. Inherently flawed. Horrible to use. Or at least, they were. The Perpetual Calendar ProSet from IWC may just have solved their biggest problem once and for all.
A perpetual calendar rests on the the display of a lot of information, that takes up a lot of space, in watches that are now growing smaller each year. This raises three issues. One is thoroughness, readability is another and the third is by far the worst, the most annoying and only those who own one really know about it. It is about setting the darn thing !
On the issue of thoroughness, I will posit that a qp needs to show it all. The year is 2026, wristwatches with perpetual calendars have been around for a century and the last two decades have seen tremendous technical progress. So I want the day, the date, the month, the year and you can throw in a rather accurate moonphase while you're at it, just because. Readability, well, you have to realize that a lot of watch lovers are old...enough to be farsighted. So please spare us the indignity of having to pull out our glasses every time we wanna know what day today is. Keep your sub-dials with tons of skinny markings that look like the bottom of a cryptocurrency platform contract. We want contrast. And a bold typeface. Thank you.
Then there's the issue of setting the various indications of a qp. The vast majority of movements out there, and by vast I mean all of them except a handful, are a pain in the neck. Each unit of time has its own corrector pusher, except it's not a pusher. It's a button recessed in the caseband, to be pressed on with a special tool you never have around when you need it. Each indication must be adjusted properly, including the moon phase. Have you ever tried to do that? Aim for the right position among 29 and something without the help of a scale, numbers, just by looking at a gray disc? Good luck with that.
To remedy this, IWC had invented a great mechanism back in the mid-1980's. It was the work of in-house technical director Kurt Klaus. He too was tired of these impossible arrangements. So he decided to create a qp module (most of them are built that way) and to pre-synchronize all of its indications. When needed, after the watch hasn't been used for several days or weeks and requires adjusting, there is but a single pusher to use. And that pusher does all the work. At once. It was so great Jaeger-LeCoultre used it extensively. Still does. It only had one drawback. You could only adjust forward.
Say you're coming back from vacation and you need to shift 10, 30, 50 days ahead. You go into tedious mode and just keep pushing without counting. And sometimes you miss the mark. That creates a big problem, because once you're past the current date, there's nothing you can do but wait until the watch stops and catches up. The new Perpetual Calendar ProSet doesn't have that defect anymore. First implemented in caliber 82665, it can go back and forth. And you don't even need to use a pusher because the entirety of this setting up is done with a dedicated position of the crown. So why did it take so long to get there ?
In order to work, a qp movement uses several wheels that need to be stopped and stay put for a whole day, a full week, an entire month and sometimes even twelve of those. They're kept in place by springs and levers. They're great tools, but usually work in one direction only. Plus the interactions between the various components are so intricate that you can't do any adjustment between 10 pm and 2 am, under penalty of breaking the whole thing. So IWC got smart.
Instead of using levers and non-flexible connections between the various functions of caliber xxxx, they used a new type of wheels, made from LIGA. This technique allows for precise fabrication of intricate parts with sophisticated architectures. Namely hollowed out teeth and built-in connectors with flexible blades. And with them, they built a mechanical computer, a program wheel meshing with an uninterrupted geartrain. It all sounds very geeky, delightfully so, but in actuality, it's quite clever. It allows to keep the original benefit of the previous module version, use the same base architecture, only updated to make synchronized calendar setting bi-directional.
© David Chokron/ WorldTempus
I'll grant you that there are other such practical qps around. Greubel Forsey has one, magnificently readable at that. But you'll have to sell both your kidneys to afford one. Audemars Piguet too made it easier to set their caliber 7138. Entirely operated through the crown, they say, but you'd have to pull it up to three times and depending on the spinning direction, you en up with seven positions on the crown : not practical in the end. And it'll also require you to sell an organ only to spend three years on a waiting list. A Big Pilot's Perpetual Calendar ProSet is not even in the same universe as it costs under 40K€, and has but two crown positions. One for time setting, the other for calendar setting. Guys, we've been waiting for this thing for decades. Now was that so difficult ?
FAQ:
Q: What is a perpetual calendar watch?
A: A perpetual calendar watch is a complication that tracks the day, date, month and year, automatically adjusting for months of different lengths and leap years. According to IWC's own account, these movements have existed for about a century, but have long been criticized for being hard to read and, especially, difficult to set.
Q: What is a moonphase watch?
A: A moonphase watch is a complication that displays the current phase of the moon, usually alongside a perpetual calendar. Setting it accurately has traditionally been one of the hardest parts of adjusting a perpetual calendar, since it requires positioning a rotating disc correctly among 29 or so days without any reference scale.
Q: What is the IWC Big Pilot's Perpetual Calendar?
A: The IWC Big Pilot's Perpetual Calendar is a watch built around the new Perpetual Calendar ProSet mechanism, first used in caliber 82665. It lets the wearer set the day, date, month, year and moonphase in both directions using a single crown position, and is priced under 40,000 euros.
Q: Who is Kurt Klaus?
A: Kurt Klaus is the former in-house technical director at IWC who invented the brand's perpetual calendar module in the mid-1980s. His mechanism pre-synchronized all calendar indications so a single pusher could adjust them at once, a system so effective that Jaeger-LeCoultre also used it for years.
