Some of the most complicated watches in the world have become very desirable. Great designers across the globe have creatively showed how to display time in many different ways. We came across ten great watches we thought you should have a look at.
10. IWC Siderale Scafasia – The IWC’s most complex watch which has a map of the heavens on the back, designed on a bespoke basis to reflect the night sky according to coordinates supplied by the buyer. It also features a perpetual calendar, sunrise/sunset indicators, a sidereal indicators, a sidereal time display and a tourbillion escapement rotating in the dial. Cost: 750,000 swiss fancs.
9. Jaeger – leCoultre Hybris Mechanica Grande Sonnerie – This is a three face watch that comes with a bevy of astronomical complications, including a zodiacal calendar with moon phases and perpetual calendar. It’s third face is in the case beneath the main reversible body of the watch.
8. Fortis F43 – Seen as one of the world’s first mechanical GMT alarm chronometer with two separate power reserves. Fortis actiually specialises in aviator watches and some of their watches have been worn to space and back. Cost:$20,850.
7. Christophe Claret 21 Blackjack – This wonder is a whole casino in itself; it enables you tp play blackjack, roulette and dice games by pushing a few buttons. It has card-marked discs rotating beneath windows in the dial for the blackjack game, a roulette wheel spinning away on the reverse side and a housing in the side of the case containing a couple of tiny dice. Cost: $200,000.
6. Greubel Forsey Invention GMT – Why have a boring old dial displaying separate time zones when you can have an entire globe spinning around in the face of your watch? Robert Greubel and Stephen Forsey’s watches are dizzyingly inventive examples of technological wizardry, made in small numbers for clients prepared to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars. The company specialise in ultra-high-spec tourbillon mechanisms, but in this watch it goes a stage further with the globe spinning once every 24 hours in accordance with the planets actual rotation. Cost: $450,000.
5. Urwerk UR-1001 Zeit Device – Urwerk is leading the way with this futuristic slab of a watch. It’s a sort of amplification of all the weirdly brilliant ideas behind the Urwerk brand, with customary avant-garde displays for complications, including day/night indicator running seconds, power reserve, and calendar, plus a 100-year and 1,000-year indicators for proper forward planners. Cost: $300,000.
4. Patek Philippe 5208P – This watch really is Patek doing what Patek does best: Presenting phenomenal complexity through phenomenal simplicity. For a watch that’s full of haute horological functions, including a two gong minute repeater to chime the time, perpetual calendar, across three windows that wont need adjusting for 100 years, chronograph, moonphase, day/night indicator. It’s a stunning measured, readable timepiece. Cost: $974,000.
3. Jules Audemars Grande Complication – In case anyone thought that Audemars Piguet was just the producer of classic sports watches with the word “oak” in the name, here’s a reminder of just what extraordinary things the brand can do in the exalted world of the ultra high-end. A watch with the classic combination of perpetual calendar with day, date, week, month, leap years and the moon phases. It also boasts a minute repeater and split seconds chronograph, its most exquisite incarnation is in skeleton form, which shows the intricate workings underneath. Cost: $920,000.
2. Franck Muller Aeternitas Mega 4 – With no less than 36 different complications – of which 25 are visible and containing 1,483 separate components, this is arguably the most complicated wristwatch ever produced. it’s creator, Franck Muller, is seen as the watch industries wild chid, and this piece reflects the sheer, unfettered nuttiness of his ambition. Split secound chronograph, three different time zones, minute repeater, huge tourbillon and elaborate date display. Cost: $2.7million
1. Patek Philippe Sky Moon Tourbillon – As you can see from some of the watches above Patek Philippe wasn’t the first to come up with putting a celestial chart on a watch. Patek got there first with this awesome Sky Moon Tourbillion – Patek’s most complex watch ever. The front is a classically ravishing design, with retrograde date, mean solar time, moon phases, and a gorgeous embossed opaline dial. On the back of this watch is a starry sky with astonomical indicators. It has a tourbillion and minute repeater, the two ultimate grand complications for good measure. Cost $1.4Million.
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