[Image: Vacheron Constantin / Facebook]
Swiss watchmaker Vacheron Constantin’s latest timepiece is not just packed with novel features — it is, officially, the most complicated mechanical wristwatch ever produced.
The Les Cabinotiers Solaria Ultra Grand Complication tracks the sun’s position in the sky and chimes with the sound of hammers hitting four miniature gongs, it even tells the wearer when certain stars will be visible from Earth.
Not your average timepiece, it took 11 years of development to create this masterpiece, including a year entirely devoted to its assembly.
The one-off design, which went on show at the Watches and Wonders trade fair in Switzerland on Tuesday, comprises 1,521 separate components. The watchmaker is seeking to protect its new creation through 13 patent applications, seven of which relate to the chiming mechanism.
In horology, a “complication” refers to any function that goes beyond standard time-telling, such as a Gregorian calendar or moon phase display. And the new Les Cabinotiers Solaria Ultra Grand Complication contains a record-breaking 41 of them.
Founded in 1755 and now owned by luxury conglomerate Richemont, Vacheron Constantin also holds the record for the most complicated pocket watch. The brand’s Berkley Grand Complication, unveiled last year, features 63 horological complications, including a Chinese perpetual calendar displaying the complex lunisolar cycle.
But while this represents 22 more complications than those boasted by its latest creation, pocket watches can be considerably larger than wristwatches. At 45 millimeters (1.8 inches), the new Solaria Ultra Grand Complication’s case is less than half the diameter of the Berkley’s.
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“The main objective was to bring together all the main complications, timekeeping, calendar, chronograph and chiming, on a single base plate and to concentrate the astronomical functions on an additional plate,” Vacheron Constantin’s style and heritage director, Christian Selmoni, is quoted saying.
“Thanks to this construction, it was possible to create a wristwatch with harmonious proportions.”
[Source: CNN]
