The perpetual calendar is one of the more... complicated complications in watchmaking. A watch with a perpetual calendar complication will display complete date information, including the moon phase. In addition to the date, day, month and moon phase, it also accounts for leap years. The timepiece will change the date according to whether there are 30 or 31 days in the month, passing directly to the 1st of the next month as appropriate. The watch is also set up to display just 28 days in February, or 29 in a leap year – utterly ingenious. Here are our selections.
Frédérique Constant - Slimline Manufacture Quantième Perpétuel Frédérique Constant
Complex simplicity or simple complexity – it’s hard to decide which is the best way to describe this latest offering from Frédérique Constant. The Manufacture Quantième Perpétuel not only displays the phases of the moon; it also shows the hour, minute, day, date, month and year in four figures. Driven by self-winding manufacture calibre FC-775, with a 38-hour power reserve, the watch has a subtle blue or silvered dial, with baton index markers that match the colour of the 42 mm case. Flat pushers at each side of the dial make it easy to adjust the calendar mechanism. The pusher at 11 o’clock governs the month and leap years. On the opposite side of the case, at 5 o’clock, is the moon phase control. The 8 o’clock pusher changes the days of the week, and the button at 10 o’clock advances the day and the date simultaneously.
Like other perpetual calendars, this watch should require no manual corrections for the next 400 years. However, a peculiarity of the Gregorian calendar means that the timepiece will need to be altered on 1 March 2100, which should logically be a leap year, and isn’t. The watch represents astonishing value for money, at just CHF 8,350 in steel or CHF 8,650 in rose gold plate – unheard of for a perpetual calendar.
Graff - Mastergraff Perpetual Calendar
Artistic design and mechanical complexity define the identity of the Mastergraff Perpetual Calendar by Graff. The watch is equipped with the Calibre 7, an exclusively designed manufacture movement. It has an aperture at 6 o’clock revealing a tourbillon, which rotates once every 60 seconds. The date, day and month are displayed horizontally across the dial. This new timepiece, which also indicates whether the current year is a leap year, will require no readjustment until 2100. The Mastergraff Perpetual Calendar is an impressive showcase for the jeweller and watchmaker’s savoir-faire and watchmaking expertise.
Chopard - L.U.C Perpetual Chrono
The Geneva watchmaker has matched the brand new L.U.C calibre 03.10-L with a manually-wound chronograph and perpetual calendar. The new movement, entirely designed and produced in Chopard’s workshops, is based around a column wheel that drives the watch’s functions, which include a flyback mechanism. It has a distinctive double-window big date, with the day, month and the current or leap year, plus day/night indication and an orbital moon phase display. Karl-Friedrich Scheufele, co-President of Chopard, is keen to point out that the 45 mm case of the L.U.C Perpetual Chrono is made entirely of certified “Fairmined” 18K gold. Only 20 of these watches are available.
