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One of the most fascinating complications in haute horlogerie is the perpetual calendar: in addition to the date, the mechanical movement also displays the month, the day of the week, and the moon phase – and it stays accurate until the year 2100. Until then, the complication in principle needs no correction. We introduce you to one of the greatest challenges facing master watchmakers.
The Difficulty of the Grand Complication
Because the Julian calendar ran eleven minutes longer each year than the solar year, Pope Gregory XIII introduced the calendar named after him in 1582 – the Gregorian calendar, which has formed the basis of how we reckon time ever since. The calendar is, at least when it has to be built into mechanical luxury watches, remarkably complicated: the 365 days of a year actually add up to 365.25 days. These are divided into 12 months of varying length, and every four years an extra day has to be inserted as a correction to keep things in step – the leap day on February 29. In addition, roughly every 100 years a leap year is skipped so that the eleven-minute discrepancy from the length of the solar year, first corrected in 1582, is continually adjusted.
A Masterpiece Among Complications
When a luxury watch is fitted with a perpetual calendar, sometimes also called an everlasting calendar, the complication handles the correct sequence of months of differing lengths unerringly and without a single mistake, whether they have 28, 29, 30, or 31 days. It knows when the leap years fall and changes the date on its own, reliably. Responsible for this is an ingenious mechanism inside. Crafted by hand, its program wheels, with their notches cut to varying depths, govern the passage of time.
There are only a handful of manufactures in the entire world that have mastered the mechanical finesse this complication demands and know how these magnificent, delicate technical masterpieces must be designed so that they function flawlessly. Wristwatches equipped with this complication often also feature moon phase and day-of-the-week displays.
The First Watch with the Perpetual Complication
In 1925, Patek Philippe developed the first mechanical wristwatch with an annual calendar. In the same year, however, the Geneva manufacture Breguet also presented a wristwatch with a perpetual calendar. That watch, though, still contained a pocket watch movement, since Breguet did not develop a corresponding caliber until four years later. Over a four-year cycle, the mechanism of a perpetual calendar must account not only for the lengths of the months but also for the leap year. From the early 1940s, Patek Philippe began series production of luxury watches with this mechanism, and since 1962 the perpetual calendar has been paired with an automatic movement.
Wristwatches for Eternity
The manufacture Blancpain also has the extensive know-how to master this supreme discipline of watchmaking – for example with the Blancpain Villeret featuring a moon phase and perpetual calendar. The crescent moon reliably shows the phases. Wearing a watch with a perpetual calendar is an enthusiast's bow to the outstanding engineering achievement of great watchmakers and shows that modern luxury watches unite art and craftsmanship. This is why Blancpain relaunched its Villeret collection in 2010, and it is regarded as an important benchmark when it comes to wristwatches with a perpetual calendar. The automatic watch is housed in a stainless steel case and, in addition to the time and moon phases, displays the date, the day of the week, and central seconds.
The Classique Automatic likewise offers all the virtues of a true Breguet: tradition, classicism, and minimalism come together with a sophisticated mechanism inside the case. Luxury watches simply don't get more beautiful. The timeless design of these wristwatches, developed with great attention to detail, speaks for itself. Besides the time and date, the days of the week and months are displayed, while a power reserve indicator, moon phase, and perpetual calendar round out the displays, all housed in an elegantly shaped rose gold case. For anyone looking for a watch that is both classic and elegant, Breguet wristwatches are the very first choice. Connoisseurs and lovers of mechanical luxury watches eagerly await Baselworld every year, where Breguet has established itself as one of the top 5 watch manufactures.
Glashütte Original Senator 40 Automatic Perpetual Calendar
At the manufacture Glashütte Original, the perpetual calendar is a classic, available not only with silvery-white but also with blue dials: when light strikes the dial, the galvanic blue shimmers in every facet of the color. In its original version with the silver dial, the Senator with this complication has already become a classic, displaying the date and day of the week. In the dark, luminous numerals and luminous indices ensure easy legibility. With its 40-millimeter diameter, the Senator Perpetual Calendar can be worn not only by seasoned gentlemen but also by sporty, ambitious women. Another feature of this enchanting watch, besides the moon phase and perpetual calendar, is the exhibition caseback.
Glashütte Once Again
The A. Lange & Söhne Langematik Perpetual from the Glashütte manufacture also plays its part in the concert of grand calendars. A total of 478 individual components, some of them tiny, work inside the case of the A. Lange & Söhne Langematik Perpetual, displaying the correct time – and thanks to the sapphire caseback, you can even watch them at work. The Langematik Perpetual by A. Lange & Söhne is one of the watches that marked a high point for haute horlogerie – and not only because of its built-in perpetual calendar complication. It is the very first watch in which an outsize date display combines with the grand complication in an automatic watch.
All of the calendar displays can be advanced simultaneously or corrected individually, as you prefer. First presented in 2001, the watch was reissued six years later in a new edition with a red gold case and silver dial.
