Vacheron Constantin is pushing the technical limits at this year’s Watches and Wonders, by unveiling its most complex wristwatch. The Les Cabinotiers Solaria Ultra Grand Complication watch weighs in with an impressive 41 complications, including five with astronomical functions, requiring a total of 13 patents.
This new watch in the Grand Complications series speaks to Vacheron Constnatin’s history of mastering technical complexities, which can be traced back to the end of the eighteenth century, when the brand introduced the first watch with a date display.
Since then, Vacheron Constantin has explored an eclectic array of complications, paying particular attention to astronomically-themed mechanisms. In this new watch, five rare complications are presented in a previously unseen combination, informing wearers of the position, the height, the culmination and declination of the sun, as well as the temporal identification of celestial objects.
‘It is the most complicated wristwatch in the history of horology'
Christian Selmoni, director of Style and Patrimony
As well as tracking this information on the dial, three readings offer varying conceptual ways of telling the time. Civil time, shown on the front dial with hour and minute hands, tracks the 24 hour day. Sidereal time, displayed on the reverse of the watch, takes 23 hours, 56 minutes and 4 seconds to complete, the time it takes for Earth to complete a full 360° rotation when focusing on a fixed star as a reference point. It takes four minutes less than a normal day as the Earth rotates on its axis while also revolving around the sun, giving a speedier return to its point of origin. The final reading, solar time, tracks the approximately fifteen minute difference between the solar and civil day.
The watch is the result of eight years of development. ‘It is the most complicated wristwatch in the history of horology,’ says Christian Selmoni, director of Style and Patrimony. ‘Because it combines an unrivalled 41 functions with a tourbillon regulator, the mechanism had to be arranged in the most logical and compact way possible. The first solution was to bring together all the primary complications, timekeeping, calendar, chronograph and chiming, on a single base plate and to concentrate the astronomical functions on an additional module.'
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