Celebrity Life

MB&F is celebrating 10 years since the unveiling of the Legacy Machine No. 1 with the new LMX. “The LMX is an LM1 on steroids,” says Maximilian Büsser, the founder of MB&F. We can’t help but agree. While the LMX surely shows inspiration from the LM1, there’s so much more than makes this new timepiece […]

The post The New MB&F LMX Celebrates 10 Years of Legacy Machines appeared first on duPont REGISTRY Daily.

MB&F is celebrating 10 years since the unveiling of the Legacy Machine No. 1 with the new LMX. “The LMX is an LM1 on steroids,” says Maximilian Büsser, the founder of MB&F. We can’t help but agree. While the LMX surely shows inspiration from the LM1, there’s so much more than makes this new timepiece […]

The post The New MB&F LMX Celebrates 10 Years of Legacy Machines appeared first on duPont REGISTRY Daily.

MB&F is celebrating 10 years since the unveiling of the Legacy Machine No. 1 with the new LMX. “The LMX is an LM1 on steroids,” says Maximilian Büsser, the founder of MB&F. We can’t help but agree. While the LMX surely shows inspiration from the LM1, there’s so much more than makes this new timepiece […]

The post The New MB&F LMX Celebrates 10 Years of Legacy Machines appeared first on duPont REGISTRY Daily.

Launching this spring, Wristcheck is setting a new standard for pre-owned luxury watches aimed for the new generation of collectors. And behind it all is the 24-year-old Austen Chu.

I first met Austen Chu in 2019, and through all the conversations that we’ve had since he’s always struck me as extremely well put together, independent, and wise beyond his years. There’s no doubting his knowledge and passion for watches, something he’ll tell you he’s developed since kindergarten when he first learned to tell the time. His mother had bought him a Flik-Flak because of it.

Today, he’s a valuable client of some of the world’s most prestigious watch brands. Patek Philippe allocated him a watch after he correctly predicted that year’s novelty before it was even released. And Audemars Piguet periodically lets Chu break the news of its new watches – even before traditional media. In 2020, Chu marked an incredible milestone when AP’s CEO, Francois Henry Bennahmias, allowed him to help design an 88-piece limited-edition titanium Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar watch that was retailed exclusively in China.

You almost forget how young Chu is – he’s still in his early twenties – until he tells you of his days of clubs and partying. A personal favourite: the night he spent in a park in Switzerland, drunk and unable to find his way back to where he was staying, as he cradled a newly bought grail watch, the Audemars Piguet Openworked Perpetual Calendar 25829ST.

“That story is funny,” he recalls. “I was with a friend and we were staying at his sister’s house in Geneva. We picked up the watch at a second-hand dealer, because it was already discontinued, and I remember I was wearing my 15400 when we got the new watch. It was nearly dinnertime and so we just decided to get drunk for some reason, because that was the most expensive watch I’d ever bought in my life by far.

“We got really drunk and both our phones were out of battery, and when we got into the taxi to get home all my friend could say was, “strasse, strasse,” which just meant street. We spent the night going from convenience store to park, still drunk, just waiting for morning to come so we could go and charge our phones. It was really funny. I mean, how did we get ourselves into this situation? It takes a special kind of stupid,” he says, laughing.

Chu has always had an entrepreneurial spirit about him. Born to a middle-class family and raised by a single mother in Shanghai, he’d started his first business – a public relations company for Shanghai’s lively club scene – while a teenager; by the time he was 19, he’d sold it. Today, in line with his own interest in watches, he’s launching a new venture, a pre-owned watch retail platform called Wristcheck.

His partner in the project is Sean Wong, a fellow watch collector and the senior vice president of Hypebeast. Their vision for Wristcheck was simple: to bring the same level of luxury and cool factor to pre-owned watches as Hypebeast did for street fashion. There’s already a lot of anticipation for the opening of its showroom, located in a prime spot in Landmark right next to the Tiffany & Co boutique on the first floor. The showroom opens in February, and Chu promises that it will look amazing.

Chu connected with his new business partner through, of all people, Wong’s five-year-old son. “It was completely serendipitous,” says Chu. “Sean had this segment on Hypebeast for kids, where the interviewer was a five-year-old, interviewing different people in different industries. They reached out to me and I thought it was a great series. And it turned out the kid was Sean’s son.

“It was actually the hardest interview I’ve ever had to do in my life,” Chu says with a laugh. “Because a five-year-old asks the most unexpected questions. I remember I was speaking about taking photos of watches. I said that it was a hobby of mine. And his follow-up question was, ‘What’s a hobby?’ But it was great. Sean and I grabbed lunch a week later and we really got along.”

The concept of Wristcheck had been brewing in Chu’s mind for some time, so he was grateful to find a partner in Wong. “I told him, look, I’ve been planning on doing this for a long time. But I need to find the right partner to do it with. I need someone with operations experience, and I need someone who understands my vision and believes in that. I’m just very thankful that Sean did.”

In many ways, Wristcheck is an evolution of what Chu’s been doing on social media for years. In 2017, he created the Instagram account @horoloupe to talk watches with the watch community. Today, he has more than 120,000 followers, all eagerly lapping up the content he posts. Many of the watches are rare and hard-to-find pieces from his own collection: Audemars Piguet is an obvious favourite, but you’ll also find Rolex, A Lange & Söhne and Patek Philippe. Recently, Chu has also been looking more into independent watchmakers, so Rexhep Rexhepi, MB&F and FP Journe have also made appearances.

All the photographs are his own and, more importantly, each caption is thoughtfully worded to be informative and educational. “Social media played a big role in starting Wristcheck,” Chu explains, “because I was able to see the huge disconnect in the market between the next generation of watch collectors and the current generation of collectors that traditional media caters to today.

“That’s not to say that traditional media weren’t true pioneers in their time,” he adds quickly. “I remember when all these watch blogs popped up and I thought, ‘Wow, this is amazing.’ Prior to that, all you had access to were the watch forums and they had the worst user interface.”

Having grown up with technology at its fingertips, the younger generation wants to consume knowledge, make up its own mind about things and not be told what to think by brands and traditional media. “We’re scrolling through our phones all the time, learning about discontinued models that we didn’t know existed,” says Chu.

What Wristcheck tries to do is to inspire the next generation through editorial, and provide a safe and secure exchange

Austen Chu

This new generation of big spenders, who’re used to queuing up for Air Jordan Ones and spending thousands of dollars on shoes, are now looking to place their money elsewhere. And this is where Wristcheck fills the gap. It’s not just a retail platform – there’s also a content-creation component to it. Knowledge is key, as are transparency and openness.

“At some point, every brand was the coolest brand on Earth,” Chu says. “In the 1990s, you had Breitling. In the 2000s, Franck Muller. I think my mission is to showcase all of that and say, hey, you know what, these are awesome,” says Chu. “Our generation is into knowledge-based collecting, we’re into learning. So, what Wristcheck tries to do is to inspire the next generation through editorial, and provide a safe and secure exchange. We’ll publish everything. We’re going to break down our fees, all our costs, where our money’s going.

“At the end of the day, transparency is the future of luxury. People care about where their products come from, they care about the source,” says Chu. Wristcheck will be carrying accessories as well, one of which is a brand called Parts that sells watch straps made out of apple skin, which looks and feels like leather.

In an industry that’s sensitive to flippers and dishonest dealers, pre-owned can be a tricky business. Because Wristcheck only focuses on pre-owned and discontinued models, Chu says that brands he’s worked with so far have been nothing but supportive. Wristcheck will be open to consignments in the future, but for the opening, Chu is focused on independent brands that he’s sourced himself.

He’s brought some of them over to show us. One exciting piece was the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Concept Laptimer Michael Schumacher. Only 221 were made, in tribute to the number of Formula 1 points-scoring races by the seven-time champion.

“This piece shows how much AP cares about its people because this watch came out after Schumacher’s accident. It’s basically a new kind of complication, like a split-second chronograph but with the ability to time consecutive laps on the racetrack,” says Chu. “It’s an amazing watch.”

The post Austen Chu: What’s the Hype? appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.

2020 will probably go down as the most dramatic year since the Quartz Revolution shook up the watch industry — from the calamity called Covid that shuttered manufactures for months on end, to the fiasco called Baselworld and more, it's been quite a show. But obstacles aside, our favourite watchmakers have not stopped in their creativity and in their determination to bring us new timepieces that excite and drag us out of our gloom from time to time. Here are the seven watches that defined 2020 for us.

Bulgari Serpenti Seduttori Tourbillon

The question of the future of major Swiss watch fairs has already been a question on everyone's minds for some time — many had already pulled out of Baselworld at this time, and the newly re-christened Watches and Wonders had also been pushed back to mid-year. Bulgari's CEO Jean-Christophe Babin, with contrary views, decided to strike out on his own, along with Bulgari's sister brands within the LVMH Group.

Bulgari kicked off the year with the launch of LVMH Watch Week in Dubai from January 13 to 15. The debut event offered up a variety of spectacular watches from Bulgari, TAG Here, Hublot and Zenith, and would also become the only watch fair to have gone on successfully before Covid hit full force.

In particular, the Serpenti Seduttori Tourbillon launched at this time was remarkable. Bulgari combined both their expertise in jewellery and watchmaking to bring us the world's thinnest tourbillon movement in the beautiful, bejewelled Serpenti Seduttori timepiece. The new Calibre BVL150 is the smallest tourbillon in current production, with an overall dimension of 22mm x 18mm and only 3.65mm thick.

Piaget Altiplano Ultimate Concept

Since the 1960s, Piaget has been a leader in creating ultra-thin movements, with the creations of the automatic calibre 12P and the hand-wound calibre 9P. In 2018, Piaget broke all records by releasing the prototype Altiplano Ultimate Concept that was only 2mm thick. It was so thin, it was thinner than many watch movements on the market. It took two years to make the technical feat an actual production watch and Piaget finally did it this year.

The Altiplano Ultimate Concept is the world's thinnest mechanical watch today in production today. Not only that, Piaget has made the watch fully customisable, with over 10,000 permutations that you could play around with online, from changing the colours of the bridges and wheels, to the colour of the bezel and straps.

MB&F x H. Moser LM101 and H. Moser x MB&F Endeavour Cylndrical Tourbillon

In a heartwarming turn of events, two of the most well-beloved independent manufactures, MB&F and H. Moser & Cie, came together in a mutual display of respect and creativity to bring us two collaboration limited edition watches. From Moser, we have the H. Moser x MB&F Endeavour Cylindrical Tourbillon, inspired by the MB&F FlyingT. And from MB&F, we have the MB&F x H. Moser LM101, which puts Moser's incredible fumé dials and hairspring innovation at the forefront.

Launched in June, the watches were offered in an array of stunning colour — the LM101 was available in 60 examples divided into 15 pieces each in funky blue, cosmic green, red and an exclusive aqua blue for retailer Ahmed Seddiqi & Sons. The Endeavour Cylindrical Tourbillon is offered in five versions, in funky blue, burgundy, cosmic green, off-white and ice blue, with each version available in 15 piece editions as well.

Tudor Black Bay Fifty-Eight Navy Blue

When Rolex, Patek Philippe and Tudor pulled out of Baselworld in April 2020, we didn't know what to expect next. Could we still expect any of them to release anything this year? And if so, in what format? Tudor was the first to do so, with the release of the Tudor Black Bay Fifty-Eight Navy Blue. Tudor only released one watch last year, but it was enough to sweep the internet off of its feet.

In the seven years since its launch, the Black Bay has planted itself firmly in the hearts of many. The Black Bay Fifty-Eight in particular, with a black dial and gilt accents, was an instant hit when it arrived on the market in 2018. The 2020 Navy Blue is a beautiful new addition to the collection, inspired by the "Blue Snowflake" Tudor Submariners from the mid-70s.

Omega Speedmaster "Silver Snoppy Award" 50th Anniversary

For the most part of the 2020, Omega had been mum about what they had been up to. But as we edged closer and closer to October, we knew they had something in store for us. The release of the Omega Speedmaster "Silver Snoopy Award" 50th Anniversary coincided with the very anniversary date of the Silver Snoopy Award to Omega — on October 5, 1970 — following the Apollo 13 mission. The Silver Snoopy Award is a special honour awarded to NASA employees and contractors for their outstanding achievements related to flight safety and mission success.

There couldn't have been a more uplifting watch than this latest Silver Snoopy timepiece. The Omega Snoopy watches have always been some of the most desirable Omega watches - a great juxtaposition between the playful comic and the recognition of Omega's efforts during the space exploration years. The 2020 version is presented in the classic 42mm Speedmaster steel case, with a stark white dial and blue accents on the bezel, hands, hour markers, sub-dials and logo. There's also a Snoopy illustration in the small seconds sub-dial.

The ultimate surprise however, lies in the back. On the back of the watch is an animation of the moon, the earth and Snoopy in a white Command and Service Module. When the chronograph is started, Snoopy in his command module will travel to the far side of the moon, hidden from view, and reappear on top of the earth at 14 seconds — an homage to the trip taken by the Apollo 13 crew.

Patek Philippe Grande Sonnerie ref. 6301P

This year has seen many brands return to basics — and Patek Philippe has also done the same. Kind of. If you could call a grand complication basic. There is of course, nothing basic about chiming watches, but Patek Philippe's new ref. 6301P is what they call its "purest manifestation to date" of a grande and petite sonnerie. It's almost unbelievable that this is the first timepiece Patek has created that has placed the focus singularly on its striking complications. Patek's previous grande sonnerie was in the Grandmaster Chime launched in 2014 to celebrate Patek's 175th anniversary. The ref. 5175 featured a second time zone display, a perpetual calendar, an alarm function that sounded the hours, quarters and minutes two minutes before the selected time, a striking date function in decimal format, a minute repeater and a grande and petite sonnerie on four hammers. That watch was also grandiose and almost baroque in its aesthetic execution.

Not the 6301P in comparison. It still comes with six complications (counting the dual power reserve indications, the minute repeater and jumping seconds at 6 o'clock), but its design is so sleek. The 44mm Calatrava-style platinum case, with its grand feu black enamel dial, white printed chemin-de-fer style minute track, Breguet applied numerals in white gold and luminescent leaf-shaped hands - it is all of Patek Philippe's most revered design codes rolled into one. If there was an award for the most understated complication watch of all time, this would be it.

Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Openworked Double Balance Wheel Black Ceramic

AP has continuously rolled out hits this year and it was clear that no pandemic was going to stop it in its tracks. Released in December, the Royal Oak Openworked Double Balance Wheel appears for the first time in a highly polished satin-brushed black ceramic case. The complication has been released in both 37mm and 41mm and various case materials, but this is the first time the watch has been dressed in black ceramic. The scratch-resistant material also perfectly frames the slate grey dial and the rose gold double balance.

In its usual 41mm case sizing, the open-worked timepiece allows you more than just a glimpse into the inner workings of the in-house self-winding calibre 3132 with the pink gold double balance wheel, a patented technology that improves the watch's precision and stability. Audemars Piguet has had a pretty superb 2020 despite the circumstances, and we can't wait to see what this year will bring them.

The post The 7 Watches that Defined 2020 appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.

Long before calendar watches, our schedules and our habits were formed from the moment our forefathers looked up into the sky and observed the passing of time through the movements of the sun, the moon and the stars.

The calendar we all know today, divided into 24 hour days, seven days a week, and 28, 29, 30 or 31 days a month to total 365 days a year was created in the year 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII. And five centuries later, we’re still using the same system, though it’s not without its faults. Three hundred and sixty-five days actually falls slightly short of the solar year of 365.24667 days (the time it takes the Earth to make one revolution around the sun). To make up for this difference, February 29 is added once every four years, but taken out every 100 years.

This is why horology is so fascinating: clockmakers first found a way to make calendar clocks, then miniaturised the mechanism so it could fit in your pocket, and then miniaturised it some more so it was small enough to wear on the wrist. Calendar watches range from those with the more simple date-only function to the most complex perpetual-calendar complication, which could keep track of time, day, date, months, down to the leap year, without requiring manual adjustments for more than 100 years.

Date Only

Starting with the simplest of calendar complications is the date-only timepiece, which comes with a date wheel with increments daily from 1 to 31, requiring correction every other month for the months with fewer than 31 days. The most common way to tell the date is by the window display, usually positioned at 3 o’clock or 6 o’clock. A Lange & Söhne has made the oversized date its signature, presenting the numbers in two separate, single-digit windows on the dial that are extremely easy to read. The oversized date is used for every watch within the Lange 1 family. In 2018, Lange also re-introduced the oversized date into its Saxonia collection, in tribute to the original Saxonia model first released in 1994, one of four watches that were debuted with the re-establishment of the manufacture that year.

Day-Date

The day-date function, also known as the double-date complication, is one which essentially tells the day of the week and the date, in addition to the time. The most famous is undisputedly the Rolex Oyster Perpetual Day-Date. At its launch in 1956, the Rolex Day-Date marked a significant moment in horological history. It was the first calendar wristwatch to spell out the day of the week in full, and it would cement a particular day-date aesthetic for decades to come. The date display, as on many Rolex models, is magnified by a Cyclops lens on the crystal. The Day-Date is made in precious metals only and is the watch of choice for many of the world’s most influential figures – an ultimate status symbol, it’s nicknamed the “Presidents’ watch”. The line-up today includes models in both 36mm and 40mm, with a wide-ranging variety of coloured dials, but all in precious metals and on the popular President bracelet. The most famous and coveted is, of course, the all gold Day-Date on the President bracelet. Pictured here in 40mm, the watch is equipped with the self-winding 3255 certified Superlative Chronometer calibre with a power reserve of 70 hours.

Complete Calendar

At one point in time, the complete calendar was pretty commonplace – also called the triple calendar, the watch provided the date, day and month, sometimes including a moon phase or other complications such as the chronograph. Movement maker Valjoux supplied the calibre 72C (triple-date chronograph) and 88 (triple- date chronograph with moon phase) from the 1940s to the 60s' to many watch companies, establishing the look of the complete-calendar watch of that era. Both Valjoux movements were compact, displaying the day and month on two windows at 12 o’clock and the date via a pointed hand around the perimeter of the dial. This configuration could also be seen on more prestigious models, such as the vintage Rolex ref. 4767 “Jean-Claude Killy” as well as annual-calendar watches from Patek Philippe and Vacheron Constantin in that era.
The popularity of the triple calendar waned as people turned to the more complex and convenient annual and perpetual calendars, but there’s still a certain charm to this retro complication. Vacheron Constantin certainly must have thought so too, when it decided to bring back the complication in its Historiques collection. Inspired by the reference 4240, the Historiques Triple Calendrier 1942 reflects the design codes of the original model but with a contemporary twist. The Triple Calendrier 1942 bears the same hours, minutes and small seconds at 6 o’clock, along with the date shown by a central hand with a red arrow-head pointer. The day and month are shown in two apertures at 12 o’clock. The distinctive “triple gadroon” caseband with claw-type lugs are also typical of the era. Made in steel, the watch is topped by a box- type glass and is water-resistant to 3 bar. The calibre within is the manual-winding 4400 QC, beating at a frequency of 4Hz, with a power reserve of 65 hours.

Jaeger-LeCoultre, renowned for its triple-calendar watches in the ’40s and ’50s, has also released a major update to its Master Control Calendar this year, which is now equipped with its new calibre 866. The movement now comes with an extended power reserve of 70 hours, thanks to an improved mainspring and barrel. The date display has also been improved: as the red-tipped date hand switches from the 15th to the 16th of the month, it jumps 90-degrees to avoid obscuring the moon phase display.

Weekly Calendar

Special mention must go to Patek Philippe’s Weekly Calendar ref. 5212A-001, which turned heads in 2019 when it was launched during Baselworld. The watch is like a triple calendar, but with a new purpose – the week is the focus here. It’s also cased in stainless steel, a departure from the precious metals preferred on the Calatrava. The 5212A, in addition to displaying the day of the week and date, also shows the number of weeks in the year in accordance with the ISO 8610 standard, where the first official week of the year begins on the Monday of the week of January 4. On the dial, the date is indicated in the window positioned at 3 o’clock, the day is shown by a short red-tipped hand at the centre of the dial, and the week and month indicated by a longer red tipped hand around the outer edge of the dial. The date is corrected through the crown, and the weekday and the week-number indications are controlled via two correctors in the case flank. A special movement – the self-winding calibre 26-330, which beats at a frequency of 4Hz with a maximum power reserve of 45 hours – was created for this unusual watch. Another detail we love is the handwritten typography, which provides a wonderful sense of whimsy and an almost vintage air to the otherwise practical and functional watch.

Annual Calendar

You could think of the annual calendar function as one that closes the gap between the simple date display and the highly complex perpetual calendar. The annual calendar is as practical as it gets, and at a fraction of the price of the more sophisticated perpetual calendar. Simpler calendar watches would require five adjustments a year (provided that the watch doesn’t stop running) to accurately display the date. The annual calendar watch will automatically adjust the date displayed at the end of each month. The only manual adjustment required is in February, when the month cycle is only 28 days. There are many variations of the annual calendar on the market today – Patek Philippe has several models in different configurations, while Rolex, with the Oyster Perpetual Sky-Dweller, has completely redefined what an annual-calendar complication can look like.
One with a practical look that makes reading the calendar extremely easy at a glance is the IWC Portugieser Annual Calendar.

Debuted in 2015, the watch is fitted with the IWC-manufactured 52850 calibre, equipped with twin barrels to supply the watch with a whopping seven-day power reserve. On the Portugieser Annual Calendar, the annual calendar shows the month, date and day in three separate, curved windows. Its straightforward layout – in an “American” order in homage to IWC’s American founder, FA Jones – makes reading the calendar extremely easy, all the information is comprehensible at a glance, and the large case size, at 44.2mm, also makes reading the dial easy. While the watch requires manual adjustment once every year at the end of February, IWC’s designers have made this as fuss-free as possible, as it’s easily and conveniently carried out using the crown without the need of an additional corrector.

Perpetual Calendar

And now we come to the most complex and most revered of calendar complications, the perpetual calendar. The perpetual-calendar mechanism is able to keep track of the day, date, taking into account the shifting 30 and 31-day cycles, know when it’s February when it has only 28 days, as well as knowing that every four years, February has 29 days. The first watchmaker to put this complication into a pocket watch was Thomas Mudge in 1762 but it wasn’t until 1925 that Patek Philippe miniaturised the complication successfully, and almost 20 years after that for it to produce the perpetual-calendar wristwatch in series with the legendary ref. 1526 in 1941.

Audemars Piguet first produced a perpetual calendar wristwatch in 1978, in the midst of the Quartz Crisis. The successful launch of the calibre 2120/2800 marked a milestone for the brand, propelling it down a path of creating complicated wristwatches at a time when mass-produced quartz technology threatened to decimate the mechanical watchmaking industry. Maybe this compelling story is the reason why the perpetual-calendar wristwatch enjoys the status it does today. It’s the ultimate grail watch for many collectors, as well as a mark of a watchmaker’s excellence – perhaps it’s for this reason that perpetual calendars are the most complicated calendar watches to produce, and also the most contemporary in looks. While simpler calendar watches often retain a more classical, even vintage aesthetic, perpetual calendars of today are extremely robust and avant-garde in look and feel, constantly pushing the limits of watchmaking with launch after launch of impressive mechanical feats.

Audemars Piguet presented the Royal Oak Selfwinding Perpetual Calendar Ultra-Thin in 2019, based on a concept model, the RD#2, that was introduced the year before. To date, it’s the thinnest automatic perpetual-calendar ever produced, housed inside AP’s familiar Royal Oak case. The watch is 41mm in diameter, but only 6.3mm in height – 3.2mm thinner than a regular Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar, which in itself is already a pretty slim watch. To make the calendar indications easier to read, Audemars Piguet has done away with the classic “petite tapisserie” guilloché pattern on the typical Royal Oak. The watch is also in titanium, making it incredibly lightweight on the wrist.

One of the latest perpetual calendar models released this year is MB&F’s Legacy Machine Perpetual Evo, which celebrates the brand’s 15th anniversary. With the word Evo in its name, the watch is enhanced with a zirconium case, a rubber strap and a screw-down crown, giving it a water resistance of up to 80 metres. The perpetual- calendar movement is also protected by a mono-block shock protection system called “FlexRing”, a damper that protects all the watch’s 581 parts from the usual rigours of life. Three versions of this watch are available in a very limited 15 orders each, but the one that’s caught our eye is the blue PVD version.

The post A Guide to the Different Types of Calendar Watches appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.

Long before calendar watches, our schedules and our habits were formed from the moment our forefathers looked up into the sky and observed the passing of time through the movements of the sun, the moon and the stars.

The calendar we all know today, divided into 24 hour days, seven days a week, and 28, 29, 30 or 31 days a month to total 365 days a year was created in the year 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII. And five centuries later, we’re still using the same system, though it’s not without its faults. Three hundred and sixty-five days actually falls slightly short of the solar year of 365.24667 days (the time it takes the Earth to make one revolution around the sun). To make up for this difference, February 29 is added once every four years, but taken out every 100 years.

This is why horology is so fascinating: clockmakers first found a way to make calendar clocks, then miniaturised the mechanism so it could fit in your pocket, and then miniaturised it some more so it was small enough to wear on the wrist. Calendar watches range from those with the more simple date-only function to the most complex perpetual-calendar complication, which could keep track of time, day, date, months, down to the leap year, without requiring manual adjustments for more than 100 years.

Date Only

Starting with the simplest of calendar complications is the date-only timepiece, which comes with a date wheel with increments daily from 1 to 31, requiring correction every other month for the months with fewer than 31 days. The most common way to tell the date is by the window display, usually positioned at 3 o’clock or 6 o’clock. A Lange & Söhne has made the oversized date its signature, presenting the numbers in two separate, single-digit windows on the dial that are extremely easy to read. The oversized date is used for every watch within the Lange 1 family. In 2018, Lange also re-introduced the oversized date into its Saxonia collection, in tribute to the original Saxonia model first released in 1994, one of four watches that were debuted with the re-establishment of the manufacture that year.

Day-Date

The day-date function, also known as the double-date complication, is one which essentially tells the day of the week and the date, in addition to the time. The most famous is undisputedly the Rolex Oyster Perpetual Day-Date. At its launch in 1956, the Rolex Day-Date marked a significant moment in horological history. It was the first calendar wristwatch to spell out the day of the week in full, and it would cement a particular day-date aesthetic for decades to come. The date display, as on many Rolex models, is magnified by a Cyclops lens on the crystal. The Day-Date is made in precious metals only and is the watch of choice for many of the world’s most influential figures – an ultimate status symbol, it’s nicknamed the “Presidents’ watch”. The line-up today includes models in both 36mm and 40mm, with a wide-ranging variety of coloured dials, but all in precious metals and on the popular President bracelet. The most famous and coveted is, of course, the all gold Day-Date on the President bracelet. Pictured here in 40mm, the watch is equipped with the self-winding 3255 certified Superlative Chronometer calibre with a power reserve of 70 hours.

Complete Calendar

At one point in time, the complete calendar was pretty commonplace – also called the triple calendar, the watch provided the date, day and month, sometimes including a moon phase or other complications such as the chronograph. Movement maker Valjoux supplied the calibre 72C (triple-date chronograph) and 88 (triple- date chronograph with moon phase) from the 1940s to the 60s' to many watch companies, establishing the look of the complete-calendar watch of that era. Both Valjoux movements were compact, displaying the day and month on two windows at 12 o’clock and the date via a pointed hand around the perimeter of the dial. This configuration could also be seen on more prestigious models, such as the vintage Rolex ref. 4767 “Jean-Claude Killy” as well as annual-calendar watches from Patek Philippe and Vacheron Constantin in that era.
The popularity of the triple calendar waned as people turned to the more complex and convenient annual and perpetual calendars, but there’s still a certain charm to this retro complication. Vacheron Constantin certainly must have thought so too, when it decided to bring back the complication in its Historiques collection. Inspired by the reference 4240, the Historiques Triple Calendrier 1942 reflects the design codes of the original model but with a contemporary twist. The Triple Calendrier 1942 bears the same hours, minutes and small seconds at 6 o’clock, along with the date shown by a central hand with a red arrow-head pointer. The day and month are shown in two apertures at 12 o’clock. The distinctive “triple gadroon” caseband with claw-type lugs are also typical of the era. Made in steel, the watch is topped by a box- type glass and is water-resistant to 3 bar. The calibre within is the manual-winding 4400 QC, beating at a frequency of 4Hz, with a power reserve of 65 hours.

Jaeger-LeCoultre, renowned for its triple-calendar watches in the ’40s and ’50s, has also released a major update to its Master Control Calendar this year, which is now equipped with its new calibre 866. The movement now comes with an extended power reserve of 70 hours, thanks to an improved mainspring and barrel. The date display has also been improved: as the red-tipped date hand switches from the 15th to the 16th of the month, it jumps 90-degrees to avoid obscuring the moon phase display.

Weekly Calendar

Special mention must go to Patek Philippe’s Weekly Calendar ref. 5212A-001, which turned heads in 2019 when it was launched during Baselworld. The watch is like a triple calendar, but with a new purpose – the week is the focus here. It’s also cased in stainless steel, a departure from the precious metals preferred on the Calatrava. The 5212A, in addition to displaying the day of the week and date, also shows the number of weeks in the year in accordance with the ISO 8610 standard, where the first official week of the year begins on the Monday of the week of January 4. On the dial, the date is indicated in the window positioned at 3 o’clock, the day is shown by a short red-tipped hand at the centre of the dial, and the week and month indicated by a longer red tipped hand around the outer edge of the dial. The date is corrected through the crown, and the weekday and the week-number indications are controlled via two correctors in the case flank. A special movement – the self-winding calibre 26-330, which beats at a frequency of 4Hz with a maximum power reserve of 45 hours – was created for this unusual watch. Another detail we love is the handwritten typography, which provides a wonderful sense of whimsy and an almost vintage air to the otherwise practical and functional watch.

Annual Calendar

You could think of the annual calendar function as one that closes the gap between the simple date display and the highly complex perpetual calendar. The annual calendar is as practical as it gets, and at a fraction of the price of the more sophisticated perpetual calendar. Simpler calendar watches would require five adjustments a year (provided that the watch doesn’t stop running) to accurately display the date. The annual calendar watch will automatically adjust the date displayed at the end of each month. The only manual adjustment required is in February, when the month cycle is only 28 days. There are many variations of the annual calendar on the market today – Patek Philippe has several models in different configurations, while Rolex, with the Oyster Perpetual Sky-Dweller, has completely redefined what an annual-calendar complication can look like.
One with a practical look that makes reading the calendar extremely easy at a glance is the IWC Portugieser Annual Calendar.

Debuted in 2015, the watch is fitted with the IWC-manufactured 52850 calibre, equipped with twin barrels to supply the watch with a whopping seven-day power reserve. On the Portugieser Annual Calendar, the annual calendar shows the month, date and day in three separate, curved windows. Its straightforward layout – in an “American” order in homage to IWC’s American founder, FA Jones – makes reading the calendar extremely easy, all the information is comprehensible at a glance, and the large case size, at 44.2mm, also makes reading the dial easy. While the watch requires manual adjustment once every year at the end of February, IWC’s designers have made this as fuss-free as possible, as it’s easily and conveniently carried out using the crown without the need of an additional corrector.

Perpetual Calendar

And now we come to the most complex and most revered of calendar complications, the perpetual calendar. The perpetual-calendar mechanism is able to keep track of the day, date, taking into account the shifting 30 and 31-day cycles, know when it’s February when it has only 28 days, as well as knowing that every four years, February has 29 days. The first watchmaker to put this complication into a pocket watch was Thomas Mudge in 1762 but it wasn’t until 1925 that Patek Philippe miniaturised the complication successfully, and almost 20 years after that for it to produce the perpetual-calendar wristwatch in series with the legendary ref. 1526 in 1941.

Audemars Piguet first produced a perpetual calendar wristwatch in 1978, in the midst of the Quartz Crisis. The successful launch of the calibre 2120/2800 marked a milestone for the brand, propelling it down a path of creating complicated wristwatches at a time when mass-produced quartz technology threatened to decimate the mechanical watchmaking industry. Maybe this compelling story is the reason why the perpetual-calendar wristwatch enjoys the status it does today. It’s the ultimate grail watch for many collectors, as well as a mark of a watchmaker’s excellence – perhaps it’s for this reason that perpetual calendars are the most complicated calendar watches to produce, and also the most contemporary in looks. While simpler calendar watches often retain a more classical, even vintage aesthetic, perpetual calendars of today are extremely robust and avant-garde in look and feel, constantly pushing the limits of watchmaking with launch after launch of impressive mechanical feats.

Audemars Piguet presented the Royal Oak Selfwinding Perpetual Calendar Ultra-Thin in 2019, based on a concept model, the RD#2, that was introduced the year before. To date, it’s the thinnest automatic perpetual-calendar ever produced, housed inside AP’s familiar Royal Oak case. The watch is 41mm in diameter, but only 6.3mm in height – 3.2mm thinner than a regular Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar, which in itself is already a pretty slim watch. To make the calendar indications easier to read, Audemars Piguet has done away with the classic “petite tapisserie” guilloché pattern on the typical Royal Oak. The watch is also in titanium, making it incredibly lightweight on the wrist.

One of the latest perpetual calendar models released this year is MB&F’s Legacy Machine Perpetual Evo, which celebrates the brand’s 15th anniversary. With the word Evo in its name, the watch is enhanced with a zirconium case, a rubber strap and a screw-down crown, giving it a water resistance of up to 80 metres. The perpetual- calendar movement is also protected by a mono-block shock protection system called “FlexRing”, a damper that protects all the watch’s 581 parts from the usual rigours of life. Three versions of this watch are available in a very limited 15 orders each, but the one that’s caught our eye is the blue PVD version.

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