In praise of complexity
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For this high-flying timepiece, IWC has chosen the original combination of a classic tourbillon with a chronograph and a retrograde date. A new proprietary movement, the 89900 calibre, drives this 18k red gold watch whose displays are arranged for perfect visual balance and legibility. ©IWC
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The Sequential One – S110 by MCT is the first ever watch to be fashioned from Vantablack, the blackest manmade substance known. The carbon nanotubes from which it is made have a "thickness" of one millionth of a millimetre, and absorb up to 99.965% of light. ©MCT
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The ExoTourbillon, a patented speciality at Montblanc in which the balance is positioned outside the tourbillon cage, is joined by a monopusher split-seconds chronograph together with a second time zone with day/night indication. Like every timepiece in the Héritage Chronométrie collection, this watch has passed the 500 hours quality test. ©Montblanc
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Vacheron Constantin presents the first grande sonnerie wristwatch in its history. The Symphonia is outstanding for its simplicity of use and pure line. The mechanism, composed of 727 parts, enables the striking function to be selected by the bezel, while the minute repeater is actuated by a pusher in the crown. ©Vacheron Constantin.
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Christophe Claret debuts an entirely new architecture with its Maestro, whose cone-shaped large date display is joined by a three-dimensional "memo" mechanical reminder function, all with a seven-day power reserve. A breath of fresh air for the brand's Traditional collection. ©Christophe Claret
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A sophisticated guilloché dial to draw the eye, astronomical complications with a miniature-painted rotating globe and precision moon phases to connect to the universe, and a high-speed Tri-Axial tourbillon for the technical tour de force. In all, an uncommon timepiece from Girard-Perregaux. ©Girard-Perregaux
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Greubel Forsey's first ever Grande Sonnerie, also endowed with a tourbillon and its own power reserve, was an undertaking of immense magnitude. Eleven years of research have culminated in a timepiece of 935 parts, incorporating eleven security functions and two patents filed. ©Greubel Forsey
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The fourth iteration of the Vortex encases in bronze its semi-trailing hour chain and retrograde minutes, with power-reserve indication. Defying gravity, the regulating organ rotates 60° each hour. ©Hautlence
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Skulls make way for dragons. For the new H4 with HYT's signature fluidic hours, this mythical beast is featured on the aventurine dial in hand-sculpted, hand-engraved white gold. Grasped between its claws are the discs carrying the seconds and the power-reserve indication. ©HYT
Complications are, for watchmakers, a means of expressing their mechanical ingenuity and sense of innovation. Despite an economic climate that inspires prudence, a good many Maisons have chosen to shun simplicity. A round-up of what’s on show at SIHH.
With nothing to enliven them but a three-hand watch, our wrists would be dull indeed. Even as last year brands weathered one of the biggest storms of this early twenty-first century, the ambient doom and gloom has done nothing to cool their ardour nor rein in their creativity. Watchmakers are showing their inventive side in all domains, whether the tourbillon rotating on ever more axes, striking watches that are music to our ears, or dizzying three-dimensional displays. More than an “exercise in style”, these grand complications take us back to the historic depths of a world within a world, in touch with the Universe. Granted, such tours de force are within reach of only a very small circle of collectors, but they are, for us all, the stuff of dreams.
