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

The classic Grand Complication formula — a minute repeater, a perpetual calendar plus a rattrapante or split-seconds chronograph — has outlived the pocket watches it was originally invented for, and is still applied today to create highly complicated wristwatches.

On the timeline plotting the long history of watchmaking, highly complicated wristwatches only appeared relatively recently in the 1990s. It all began in the 1980s when there was a resurgence of interest in mechanical watches. Watchmakers had a feeling that they could make a tidy profit working with complicated mechanical watches, and they were eager to experiment.

Systematically they adapted the complicated constructions which had taken centuries to develop for pocket watches so that they could fit them into compact wristwatch cases. At the same time, watchmakers made allowances for the preferences of haute horlogerie aficionados. For instance, complicated wristwatches were often given a self-winding mechanism, which has been considered almost essential since the 1960s when this technology became widespread.

The Swiss/French watchmaker Dominique Loiseau was the first to design highly complicated wristwatches for Blancpain back in 1991. The Blancpain 1735 Grande Complication wristwatch he created housed an automatic winding mechanism comprised of 740 parts, successfully incorporating the functions of a minute repeater, a split-seconds chronograph, and a perpetual calendar with a moon-phase display.

Dominique Loiseau also managed to squeeze a tourbillon into the movement, which was seen as a symbol haute horlogerie at the time. That's why the 1735 deserved to have been called a Super Complication. However, luxury watch brands rarely give much thought to using the correct terminology, who focus most of their efforts on perfecting their watches.

The creator of the 1735 Grande Complication presented the far more complicated Loiseau 1f4 in 2012, and this time the wristwatch was manufactured under his eponymous independent brand name. Out of the watch’s total 21 functions, the key functions it has are a tourbillon, an automatic hours and quarters striking mechanism (Grande Sonnerie au passage), a minute repeater, a split-seconds chronograph and a perpetual calendar with a moon-phase display.

The Il Destriero Scafusia watch was the ultra-complicated showpiece of the IWC Schaffhausen anniversary collection manufactured in 1993 for the company's 125th anniversary. It should also be regarded as a Super Complication.

The 18680 caliber incorporated the functions of a minute repeater, a rattrapante chronograph and a perpetual calendar with a digital year display, all of which were topped off by the brand's first tourbillon ever fitted in a watch.

The watch was developed based on a number of the earlier Grande Complication watch models released since 1990. As a matter of fact, this model wasn’t a Grande Complication in the truest sense, as it didn't include the full set of functions present in a standard Grande Complication. Added to the minute repeater and perpetual calendar was a chronograph function, but it wasn’t a split-seconds chronograph.

It did have redeeming features to make up for the inaccurate use of terminology. The calendar mechanism was given a four-digit year display, and the watch was equipped with an self-winding mechanism. The movement was manufactured based on the Valjoux caliber 7750, which was supplemented with a minute repeater and perpetual calendar.

The new Swiss brand Franck Muller appeared on the Grand Complication and Super Complication scene around the same time, which was established in 1991. The independent Swiss watchmaker Paul Gerber was commissioned by the brand to complete an order, and by 1992 he had already manufactured the single-edition modified version of master watchmaker Louis-Elysée Piguet's compact 19th century complication.

The movement manufactured a hundred years earlier in 1892 had a Grande Sonnerie striking mechanism, a minute repeater and a split-seconds chronograph. Paul Gerber further equipped the watch with a modified perpetual calendar module manufactured at the Swiss Dubois-Dépraz factory, and also integrated a bimetallic thermometer and a weekday indicator into the movement. The watch was named the Calibre 92 by Franck Muller.

Three years later, the  collector who bought the watch wanted to make it even more complicated, and it received a tourbillon, a flyback chronograph with a jumping 30-minute counter, and indicators for the power reserve and striking mechanism. The watch then became known as the Piguet/Muller/Gerber Grand Complication.

In 1993, Franck Muller presented the somewhat less complicated one-of-a-kind Calibre 93, which was made according to the same recipe. The same old movement was used as a basis with an added calendar setting, and featured a minute repeater, split-seconds chronograph, a perpetual calendar with a bimetallic thermometer, and a day/night indicator.

In November 2009, Franck Muller presented the new super-complicated Aeternitas Mega 4 wristwatch created by watchmaker Pierre-Michel Golay. This time, the watch movement had been developed from scratch. It only took 1483 components to complete its 31 added functions.

The list of this Super Complication's main functions includes a tourbillon, a minute repeater, a Grande Sonnerie striking mechanism, a secular perpetual calendar which uses the algorithm for the Gregorian calendar, and a split chronograph with a quick restart function.

Audemars Piguet is hailed as the master of highly complicated timepieces, and the brand manufactured its first Grande Complication pocket watch in 1882. Audemars Piguet began creating highly complicated wristwatch models in 1992, when its first Triple Complication models were launched, featuring a minute repeater, a chronograph, and a perpetual calendar with an astronomical moon-phase indication.

They also had an automatic movement. The Triple Complication models didn't stay in the Audemars Piguet catalog for long. After just three years in 1995, Grande Complication watches entered serial production.

They had the full package in terms of functionality, including the essential split-seconds chronograph for watches in this category. In 1997, the watches were made even more complicated by introducing a week-number indication — a scale form 1 to 52 around the moon-phase display — which has since become a unique feature of highly complicated Audemars Piguet wristwatches. 

The DeWitt Pressy Grande Complication wristwatches unveiled in 2004 fully live up to the name with their set of additional functions.  The structure of the Grand Complication movement by A. Lange & Söhne released in 2013 also meets the Grand Complication standard, although it really belongs in the Super Complication category.

That’s because apart from its Grande Sonnerie striking mechanism, minute repeater, perpetual calendar and split-seconds chronograph, it has also been given a flying seconds hand which indicates fractions of a second. Grande Complication watches by Jean Dunand also go above and beyond the  canons of the Grand Complication category, which were made for the brand at Christophe Claret's factory in 2009, who specializes in making complicated watch movements.

 In addition to the essential set of functions, the watch also has a tourbillon, the workings of which can be observed through the transparent window of the watch's sapphire caseback.

The highly complex Hybris Mechanica à Grande Sonnerie and Master Grande Tradition Gyrotourbillon Westminster Perpétuel models by Swiss watchmaker Jaeger-LeCoultre flout the classic canons of the Grande Complication genre. They don't have a chronograph function, yet these two creations deserve to be included in the Super Complication category, considering how complicated their movements are.

The movement of the Hybris Mechanica à Grande Sonnerie is comprised of 1406 parts, and features a tourbillon, a perpetual calendar, a minute repeater, and a Grande Sonnerie striking mechanism on four monobloc crystal gongs.

The Master Grande Tradition Gyrotourbillon Westminster Perpétuel is equipped with a rotating bi-axial gyrotourbillon, a minute repeater with four sets of gongs and hammers to create the Westminster chime and indicate the quarters, a two-way perpetual calendar for setting the date forward or back, as well as a one-minute constant-force mechanism (the movement has 1050 components).

The highly complicated Grandmaster Chime by Patek Philippe which the brand unveiled in 2014 to mark its 175th anniversary doesn't have any chronograph functions. Nevertheless, this watch has still made the list of the most complicated wristwatches ever made in the history of watchmaking thanks to its 24 additional functions.

It even boasts a range of functions that you won't find in any other wristwatch. It has a perpetual calendar with a date repeater and an acoustic alarm with a minute repeater that strikes the alarm time when setting.

On top of the usual accessories shared by highly complicated watches, this model has set a real world record for how much it raised at auction.

The watch's catalog sale price was set at about USD 2.6 million, yet the one-of-a-kind Grandmaster Chime created specially for the Only Watch charity auction was sold for CHF 31 million on November 9, 2019, which is the equivalent of USD 31.2 million.