Get Ready for a Long List of Functions: Complications, part I

What's the difference between watches in the Complication and Grand Complication categories? Let's get to the bottom of this question with a long history.

What is the definition of a watch complication? There is no definitive answer. On the one hand, it couldn't be more straightforward: a complication is any additional function in a mechanical timepiece beyond the bare minimum set of features for telling the time, i.e. the hour, minute and second hands, date display and self-winding mechanism.

On the other hand, there is no limit to how complicated any basic function can be made, which does happen on occasion, often going against the unofficial KISS design principle (keep it simple, stupid). It's also always important to remember how complications were defined in the past, and how historical changes in the rules of the game have come about with technological advances in watchmaking.

For instance, up until the middle of the 20th century, self-winding watch movements could well be considered serious complications in pocket watches and wristwatches, but this practical function is now so widespread that no one would think of it as a complication. The same can be said of a central second hand or a date aperture.

As is the case with many other terms which lack fixed definitions, everyone is entitled to their own definition of what constitutes a watch complication. A perfectly reasonable criterion for defining complications would be that any additional function performed by the watch movement should be a special device, even if it consists of no more than a single component.

Going by this classification, an additional scale such as a tachymeter scale on a chronograph would not be considered a complication, no matter how important the information it provides. However, an underwater diving time indicator on a diving watch with a rotating bezel marked with a 60-minute scale, would in fact count as an additional function, albeit hardly the most complicated feature to create.

This definition could hardly be deemed to be a completely fair one, as it essentially equates that same underwater diving time indicator and a rotating bezel with various other additional functions, such as the minute repeater.

As is the case with many other terms which lack fixed definitions, everyone is entitled to their own definition of what constitutes a watch complication. A perfectly reasonable criterion for defining complications would be that any additional function performed by the watch movement should be a special device, even if it consists of no more than a single component.

Going by this classification, an additional scale such as a tachymeter scale on a chronograph would not be considered a complication, no matter how important the information it provides. However, an underwater diving time indicator on a diving watch with a rotating bezel marked with a 60-minute scale, would in fact count as an additional function, albeit hardly the most complicated feature to create.

This definition could hardly be deemed to be a completely fair one, as it essentially equates that same underwater diving time indicator and a rotating bezel with various other additional functions, such as the minute repeater.

Let's not get overly fussy about the fact that the minute repeater could even be divided into three complication — the striking mechanism, quarters and the minutes — as it's not traditionally broken down when listing the functions of complication watches.

Nevertheless, connoisseurs of watchmaking who would agree that those two functions are equal in terms of complexity are few and far between. Rules are rules, but they don't rule out common sense. A watch movement's complexity could, of course, be gaged according to the number of components it took to build it. One would think that the more functions a watch has, the more components it would take to create them, and the more complicated a function is, the more components it would need...

This theory works well for defining how complicated each individual function is, yet it defies the broader KISS design principle, and ultimately it doesn't offer an alternative replacement for counting the number of functions. A complication should first and foremost be multifunctional. That's why the component count should be treated as an important criterion for gaging the complexity of a watch movement, but one which is supplementary.

Complicated watches have been around since the birth of watchmaking, and with this in mind they should be treated as one of watchmaking's beautiful traditions. Few early descriptions of complicated watches have survived from a bygone era like the watches themselves.

Perhaps the earliest documented example of a complication would be the monumental Astrarium astronomical clock, built between 1348 and 1364 by the Italian doctor-cum-clockmaker Giovanni Dondi dall’Orologio from Padova. Unfortunately, none of the actual clocks have been preserved, but a detailed description of them written by the clockmaker himself has survived, and the fact that they existed is also documented in a wealth of sources.

 In addition to the basic clock movement with gears set in motion by a falling weight attached to a cable, the Astrarium was a clockwork equatorium which displayed sidereal (or star) time, and had astrolabe and calendar dials, six dials mapping the position of the known celestial bodies at the time, a face to predict lunar eclipses, also known as the node line, and a mechanical calendar wheel to determine the date Easter would fall on for the current year.

The undeniable complexity of mapping the movements of celestial bodies across the heavens has inspired more many a watchmaker to create highly complicated mechanical timepieces, from the two Planetary Clocks created in the late 15th century and the beginning of the 16th century by the Italian master Lorenzo dellaVolpaia to the third monumental astronomical clock of the Strasbourg Cathedral in France, constructed between 1838 and 1843 by Strasbourg clockmaker Jean-Baptiste Schwilgué.

The sheer size of the planetary and astronomical clocks meant that clockmakers almost never ran out of space for more mechanical complications. The Ivanovo Universal Astronomical Clock built by Swiss clockmaker Albert Billeter in 1873 would be an example, also known as the Burylin Clock, which has 133 additional functions and devices.

Compact pocket watches are a whole different kettle of fish, not to mention wristwatches. Watchmakers designing and constructing the movements for these watches need to have outstanding skills to be able to fit so many functions into such small movements.

The famous Swiss horologist Abraham-Louis Breguet who worked in France was probably the first known watchmaker to build a grand complication pocket watch in 1783.  Legend has it that the watch was ordered for the French Queen Marie Antoinette, which apparently boasted all the complicated additional functions that were known at the time, and was highly sought after.

The watchmaker did not live to see work on the Breguet No.160 completed, now more commonly known as the Marie-Antoinette watch, which was only finished in 1827, 34 years after Marie Antoinette's execution by guillotine. The Marie-Antoinette watch set the bar extremely high, which houses a movement comprised of 823 components with 14 additional functions and devices, including a perpetual calendar showing the date, day of the week and month, accounting for the extra day in leap years.

The timepiece also has a minute repeater, a power-reserve indicator, an equation-of-time display and a Breguet perpétuelle self-winding movement. It has served as a benchmark for other Swiss watchmakers, who developed the grand complication and super complication categories of pocket watches in the second half of the 19th century.

The list of functions and devices used was extended to include types of chronograph devices which had already been invented by that time, as well as the tourbillon created by Abraham-Louis Breguet, who clearly believed in following through with his original idea in deciding to leave this device out of the Marie-Antoinette movement.

It's interesting to note that the watchmakers who began specializing in manufacturing complications hailed from one region — the Swiss Vallée de Joux — and indeed many of them came from one of thee major watchmaking families: Audemars, Piguet and LeCoultre.

It was around the 1880s when grand complication pocket watches with a minimum standard set of features began being referred to as Grand Complication  (sometimes spelled "Grande Complication") Watches in this category had a certain set of functions: a rattrapante or split-seconds chronograph, a perpetual calendar, a moon-phase display and a minute repeater, possibly with the function of a grande sonnerie striking mechanism.

These types of watches have a total of 10 to 15 additional functions and devices, and all watches that are more complicated than Grand Complications began to be referred to as Super Complications in order to differentiate between them. Super Complications are often unique masterpieces, manufactured in one-piece editions, which are kept in private collections or stored in museums, and they hardly ever end up at auction houses.

The pocket watches in this category considered to be the most complicated are:

• L’Universelle by the company Le Roy & Fils (1870; built by watchmaker Louis-Benjamin Audemars),
• La Royale (1873; by Louis-Benjamin Audemars),
• La Merveilleuse (1878; by Ami LeCoultre and Louis-Elisée Piguet),
• Universaluhr by Glashütte Uhrenfabrik Union (1899; watch built by Audemars Piguet and movement created by Louis-Elisée Piguet),
• La Fabuleuse (1899; movement by watchmaker Louis-Elisée Piguet; watch reassembled in 1988 by independent German watchmaker Richard Daners),
• No. 6144 by the company Dürrstein & Co. (1899; Audemars Piguet, movement by watchmaker Louis-Elisée Piguet),
• Leroy 01 by Le Roy & Fils (1900; by watchmaker Charles-Emile Piguet),
• Astronomical by S. Smith & Son (1914–1920; watch made by Audemars Piguet).

Luxury watch and clock manufacturer Patek Philippe has been mentioned in this category on more than one occasion, the most famous pocket watches being the Henry Graves Supercomplication (1932; 920 components and 24 additional functions), the Calibre 89 (1989; 1728 components and 34 additional functions), and the Star Caliber 2000 (2000; 1118 components and 21 additional functions).

The Reference 57260 by the company Vacheron Constantin is considered the most complicated mechanical pocket watch ever made (2015; 2826 components and 57 additional functions). Throughout the entire history of watchmaking, only a few dozen of these Super Complication pieces have been made.