The Complication Watch: Build The Ultimate Watch Collection
The Complication Watch:
Build The Ultimate Watch Collection
A watch at its most basic operates because the energy released from the unwinding mainspring is tamed to predictable oscillations of a balance wheel, which are the smallest mechanical units of time measurement. A gear train then converts these oscillations into seconds and the seconds to minutes and so on. Through the application of further gearing, additional time-related elements can be added, such as a date wheel that is geared to be triggered every 24 hours to precisely change at midnight. Or in a chronograph, an additional seconds-minutes-hours gear train is activated when the start button is pushed. Knowing that every fourth year is a leap year, a perpetual calendar complication can be added. If there is something that happens on a regular basis, chances are it can be added to a watch as a complication.
Objects of desireComplications have always been a way for a watchmaker to show off his talent, and the most talented craftsmen were recognized by wealthy collectors. Often one-off complicated watches were made on commission for patrons, like Renaissance paintings and men of means would try to one-up each other with more and more complicated watches.
The most famous collecting duo were James Packard, the founder of the eponymous car brand, and Henry Graves Jr., a New York banker, whose good fortunes in the early part of the 20th century meant they had pockets burning with disposable cash. Both approached the most legendary of the Swiss watch houses, Patek Philippe, to build more and more complicated pocket watches. Collectors like Packard and Graves pushed watchmakers to find ways to build more innovative watches and we can see the results of these efforts in modern complication wristwatches.
Perhaps the most famous complication watch of all time was the so-called “Marie Antoinette,” so-named because it was commissioned for the 18th century queen of France. It was built by the celebrity French watchmaker, Abraham-Louis Breguet and the specification given was to build a watch that contained every possible complication (23 in all), including a perpetual calendar, repeater, even a thermometer. The watch took over 30 years to build and neither Breguet or Marie Antoinette lived to see it completed. But that’s not the end of the story. In 1983, the watch was stolen from a museum in Jerusalem and the heist baffled police for decades. Only in 2004 was the case solved, when it was discovered that a famous jewel thief, Na’aman Diller, had masterfully orchestrated the theft and kept the watch hidden away for almost 20 years until he died of cancer.
The history of the Marie Antoinette watch is the stuff of mystery paperbacks, and surely a film version will emerge some day.
The Breguet watch company endeavored to faithfully recreate the Marie Antoinette recently and was successful. We would include it in our ultimate watch collection if we could, but only one was made and it’s not for sale.
What are the features of a complication watch?