What exactly is a complication? If we take the definition from the industry bible, the often-vague “Dictionnaire professionnel de l’horlogerie”, it could just as easily be the definition from any standard English dictionary: “State of being complicated; the cause of such state”. But the author, Georges–Albert Berner, offers the following by way of further explanation: “Striking and chronograph mechanisms are complications”. No mention of the perpetual calendar, which is one of the hardest complications to produce and assemble, nor of retrograde indications. If we considered the equally broad interpretation of a complication referring to any additional module on the movement, then even the most humble day-date watch could be considered a complication. In our selection below, however, the status of complicated watch is beyond dispute. These models are the talk of Baselworld precisely because they take the idea of complication to a new level, introducing unique ways of making the measurement and depiction of time in the tiny space of a watch even more… complicated.
The sidereal calendar
Other watches have already tackled the complicated notion of displaying the sidereal calendar, in other words measuring the time it takes the Earth to complete a full rotation about its axis (a sidereal day) or for the Earth to orbit the sun (a sidereal year). But Jacob & Co. have now presented an evolution of their triple-axis gravitational tourbillon that offers the first-ever three-dimensional sidereal display. In the new Astronomia Sky, the first of the three axes is the central axis, around which all components rotate once every 20 minutes. The second axis varies for several components: for the day/night indication, the central globe performs one complete rotation about its own axis in one sidereal day (23.5640916 hours); the seconds indicator, with the 10 minute intervals engraved on individual segments, rotates in 60 seconds, as does the Jacob Cut moon opposite it; the tourbillon rotates once every five minutes, with a third axis for the usual 60-second rotation. Now you get the idea of what we mean by “complicated”.
Beneath all this is a celestial dial that rotates in one sidereal year, with 18-carat gold stars and hand-engraved and applied zodiacal signs. Superimposed on this is an oval-shaped sky indicator, which shows the position of the stars in the night sky and rotates in one sidereal day. On the side of the dial, the months are indicated, with a hand pointing to the current month. Last but not least, this radical timepiece, which is over half as thick as it is wide, also tells the time – by means of a subdial opposite the tourbillon, which moves around the dial every 20 minutes like all the other components, with a clever differential gear to ensure that the time is always the right way up (in other words that 12 o’clock is always in the 12 o’clock position).
Big hours
There is a lot of competition for who has the biggest big date in watchmaking, but the brand with the biggest hours is clearly MCT. In the new limited edition S210 models, the brand’s unmistakable system of four 50-piece revolving prisms is used to display the hours against new dial backgrounds in anthracite or champagne. Inside the 46.4mm diameter titanium or titanium DLC case, the full 654 components of the movement act out a magnificent ballet at the top of every hour, as the central C-shaped disc instantly rotates 90 degrees anticlockwise to reveal the current hour just milliseconds after the 50 prisms have revolved to change the hour, which is therefore displayed successively at 12 o’clock, 9 o’clock, 6 o’clock and 3 o’clock. This complicated watch function is powered by the MCT S2.0 self-winding mechanical movement, which has an 18-carat gold micro rotor and offers a 40-hour power reserve. Only 25 of each version are available.
Pour vous, Monsieur
Chanel’s new watch may well be complicated, but it is much more than that. There has, quite simply, never been a Chanel watch specifically designed for men. As such, the concept, the movement and the case of the new Monsieur watch presented at Baselworld had to be developed from scratch. After five years of development, the movement takes the form of the manually-wound Calibre 1, in which the complications (in this case large digital hour at 6 o’clock, retrograde minutes at 12 o’clock and and off-centre small seconds display) are all integrated directly.
Unlike our two preceding examples, the Monsieur crams its complications, including twin barrels for a 72-hour power reserve, into a modest 40mm diameter case. Chanel states that only 300 individually numbered Calibre 1 movements will be produced this year, of which half will equip the Monsieur in the brand’s characteristic beige gold and half will be allocated to a white gold model.
