Damn!!
It's more complicated than a woman...
home-watch-4 by Fabio dos Santos, no Flickr
12 by Fabio dos Santos, no Flickr
images (1) by Fabio dos Santos, no Flickr
3b7540d8a456ae13b61e11e603789e8d by Fabio dos Santos, no Flickr
https_%2F%2Fblogs-images.forbes.com%2Frobertanaas%2Ffiles%2F2015%2F09%2FDSC02387 by Fabio dos Santos, no FlickrArticle By Logan Hannen
"Now, it’s worth mentioning that the most complicated mechanical watch ever produced is actually not a wrist watch at all, but a (freaking huge) pocket watch. You’d need to be Hagrid to fit it in your pockets, but that’s what they called it, so I’m gonna stick to their nomenclature on this one. Who is this mysterious “they”? Well, if the thumbnail for this article didn’t give it away, it’s the one and only Vacheron Constantin.
The particular watch in question is the Vacheron Constantin reference 57260, so named because of both the 57 complications the piece holds and the 276th anniversary of the brand. Is 276 years a really, really strange one to celebrate? I like to think it’s just incredibly specific, but to each their own, I guess. Either way, I mentioned 57 complications, so what are they?
I won’t get into every single one, because that’d make this article unbearably long, but here are a bunch of the standouts:
Regulator-style hands (Wherein the hours, minutes, and seconds are all on separate parts of the dial, usually with the hours and seconds in subdials and the minutes hand the only one remaining in the center)
Second time zone (Similar to a GMT in many ways, except it displays the exact time in that time one as an entirely separate dial, rather than just with an extra hour hand)
World time (Allows for the time in every major time zone on Earth to be displayed at one time)
Day-night indicator (Displays whether the time read out is am or pm via a disc with images of the sun and moon painted on it)
Retrograde perpetual calendar (Same as your standard perpetual calendar, but with the added complication of the date being on an arc rather than a whole disc. When the final date of the month is finished, it snaps back to its position at the start of the arc)
Hebrew perpetual calendar (It’s a perpetual calendar, but all of the information is written using Hebrew rather than English – nuff said)
Astronomical calendar (featuring both moon phase and Zodiac calendar – yeah, the stuff your horoscopes talk about)
Again, these are just a handful of the total 57 complications Vacheron has included. All of this is packed into a 98 mm across piece (I told you it was big – even Invicta wouldn’t go there) made of solid 18k white gold with a movement so freaking pretty I got lost staring at it for upwards of twenty minutes while writing this article. As you may have guessed, it’s a piece unique, and not for sale, but it is a huge (literally) display of just how capable a manufacturer Vacheron Constantin really is. The fact that they’ve managed to pull this off is impressive enough, let alone the fact that they’ve done so in a way that enabled them to keep it classy, watchfan."
All fifty-seven complications by function:
57complications_front (1) by Fabio dos Santos, no Flickr6 time measurement functions
1. Hours, minutes, seconds, average solar time (regulator)
2. Three-shaft tourbillon
3. Tourbillon regulator with spherical balance spring
4. 12-hour time zone, second hours and minutes time zone
5. 24-city display for each time zone
6. Day/night indication for 12-hour time zone
7 perpetual calendar functions
7. Gregorian perpetual calendar
8. Gregorian day name
9. Gregorian month name
10. Gregorian retrograde date
11. Leap year and four-year cycle display
12. Number of the day of the week (ISO 8601 calendar)
13. Week to view (ISO 8601 calendar)
8 Hebrew calendar functions
14. Hebrew perpetual calendar and 19-year cycle
15. Hebrew day number
16. Hebrew month name
17. Hebrew date
18. Hebrew secular calendar
19. Hebrew century, decade and year
20. Age of Hebrew year (12 or 13 months)
21. Golden number (19 years)
9 astronomical calendar functions
22. Seasons, equinoxes, solstices and signs of the Zodiac indicated by the hand on the sun
23. Star chart (for the owner's city)
24. Sidereal time hours
25. Sidereal time minutes
26. Equation of time
27. Sunrise times (for the owner's city)
28. Sunset times (for the owner's city)
29. Length of day (for the owner's city)
30. Length of night (for the owner's city)
1 lunar calendar function
31. Moon phases and age (one correction every 1,027 years)
1 religious calendar function
32. Date of Yom Kippur
4 3 column wheel chronograph functions
33. Retrograde seconds chronograph (one column wheel)
34. Retrograde split-seconds chronograph (one column wheel)
35. Hours counter (one column wheel)
36. Minutes counter
7 alarm functions
37. Alarm with its own gong and gradual striking
38. Alarm strike / silence indicator
39. Choice of normal alarm or carillon striking alarm indicator
40. Alarm mechanism coupled to the carillon striking mechanism
41. Alarm striking with choice of grande or petite sonnerie
42. Alarm power-reserve indication
43. System to disengage the striking mechanism when alarm barrel fully unwound
8 Westminster carillon striking functions
44. Westminster carillon chiming with 5 gongs and 5 hammers
45. Grande sonnerie passing strike
46. Petite sonnerie passing strike
47. Minute repeating
48. Night silence feature (10 p.m. to 8 a.m.)
49. System to disengage the striking barrel when fully wound
50. Indication for grande or petite sonnerie modes
51. Indication for silence / striking / night modes
6 other functions
52. Movement power reserve indicator
53. Power-reserve indication for the striking train
54. Winding crown position indicator
55. Dual barrel winding system
56. Time setting in two positions and two directions
57. Secret mechanism (opening of the button for alarm arbor)
References:
https://theoandharris.com/watch-101-wha ... -produced/
http://reference57260.vacheron-constant ... plications
