World s Most Complicated Watch ourney with us into the mechanical
imitation Panerai watches
This first limited-edition Mokume Dragon is available in skeletonized and unskeletonized versions. Prices range from $37,600 to $52,000 for the platinum.
World’s Most Complicated Watch ourney with us into the mechanical marvels inside the Jmovement of the world’s most complicated wristwatch. With such an array of complications to discuss, I’ve decided to follow the history of the watch and present the complications in their historical order. To that end, we must first discuss briefly the grande et petite sonnerie and minute repeater. I won’t attempt to discuss its mechanism in detail, as such a dissertation could fill volumes (if I was qualified to write such a thing). In addition, the design of the original mechanism is so classical as to have already been discussed in several volumes at least already, this example is distinguished largely by its diminuitive size and exemplary execution. Instead, I’ll simply offer an overview of what the mechanism does.
The Sonnerie and Repeater One of the most challenging and certainly the most complex classical grand complications, the grande et petite sonnerie and minute repeater is an extremely exotic animal. Even today, there are only a handful of examples of this grandest of complications and their numbers diminish exponentially as their size decreases. For Philippe Dufour to make a grande et petite sonnerie and minute repeater in a wristwatch size in the late twentieth century is a major accomplishment. For Louis-Ely-see Piguet to do so in a similar size 100 years earlier is nothing short of mind-boggling.
A sonnerie is a watch that strikes the time in passing, much like a grandfather clock. In “grande strike” position it will strike the number of hours on a single gong at the turn of the hour, and at the passing of each quarter hour it will strike the hours with single chimes and the quarters with double chimes (on two different gongs). In “petite strike” position, the hours will be struck on the hour and the quarters only as they pass. For occasions when such music coming from your wrist might not be appropriate, it is equipped with a silent position as well.
To realize a complete array of passing strike options like this in a clock the size of a small closet and powered by the falling of large weights requires some ingenuity and engineering prowess, but to do so in a mechanism small enough to be worn on the wrist borders on the incredible. Sharing all the complexity of a minute repeater and then some, it is no wonder that most grande sonneries are also minute repeaters.
The Perpetual Calendar/Thermometer, The perpetual calendar has become a standard in the world of complicated watches, but perpetually has its charm as a mechanism that knows a little bit about the future. It “knows” how the date indications will be set in, say, ninety-seven years (needing the adjustment of a single corrector in the year 2100!).
Franck Muller, at the very beginning of his impressive and successful career, added the perpetual calendar together with a thermometer. As far as can be judged from pictures, the perpetual calendar plate is of excellent execution and classic design as would seem most appropriate to add to such a traditional movement. The notable exception is the retrograde month indication, forecasting the multitude of retrograde indicators that Franck Muller has become known for in recent years.
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