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Watch Complications
Simplified
In
our lives, we are constantly trying to avoid complications. In
the horological world, however, complications make watches, and
life, more interesting
What
Is a Complication?
A complication is anything more than the standard time display -
hour, minute and second hands. So, to be specific, even the addition
of a date display is considered a complication.
What
Are The Most Popular Complications?
The most popular complications, at the lower end of the spectrum,
are the chronograph, the day/date display (annual calendar), moon
phase and the dual time/GMT complication. On the higher end, the
perpetual calendar, minute repeater, tourbillon and grand complication
are the most popular complications.
What
Is The Most Popular Complications?
The tourbillon is considered the height of watchmaking. Designed
to counter the effects of gravity, the tourbillon has been around
since 1798. Comprised of an outstanding number of parts (the classic
Girard-Perregaux
Tourbillon with Three Gold Bridges has 235 parts), it's a true feat
of watchmaking skill to make a reliable tourbillon. Any striking
watch is also a challenge to manufacture, the most complicated being
the Grande Sonnerie, which chimes hours, quarter hours and minutes,
while the Minute Repeater does the above on demand.
The
Trend In Movements
In the past, many companies used movements manufactured by ETA,
a company owned by the Swatch
Group that specializes in very precise movements. Today, however,
movements are so hard to get that many watch brands are moving to
other companies or developing their own in-house movements to control
the supply of movements themselves, and also to stand apart from
the host of companies that use ETA movements.
The
Future Of Complications
Watches will continue to get more complicated on the inside, while
being more user-friendly on the outside. What good is a super complicated
watch if you can't figure out how to use it? The watch should do the
heavy lifting for you, the wearer. All you should need to do is read
it to get the various indications.
The Top Four Complications Simplified
Perpetual
Calendar
A calendar that automatically accounts for the different number
of days in months and for leap years. With a few rare exceptions,
it has to be adjusted for secular years that are not leap years,
the next being 2100 and 2200.
Repeater
A watch that sounds the hours by means of a mechanism operated by
a push-piece or slide. There are various types of repeaters: Quarter-Repeater,
sounding the hours and the quarters; Five-Minute Repeater, striking
the hours, quarters and minutes on demand; Grande Sonnerie (Grand
Strike), sounding the hours and quarters automatically and repeating
when a push-piece is pressed down; Chiming Repeater, in which the
quarters are struck on three or four gongs of different pitch.
Grande
Complication
There is no hard and fast rule for what a Grande Complication is.
Common usage is that to qualify as a Grande Complication, a watch
has to have at least three high complications. One of the most popular
combinations is a chronograph, perpetual calendar and minute repeater.
Tourbillon
Device invented to eliminate errors of rate in vertical positions.
It consists of a mobile carriage or cage carrying all the parts
of the escapement, with the balance in the center. The cage generally
makes one revolution per minute.
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