Vacheron Constantin Just Unveiled the World’s Most Complicated Wristwatch

Vacheron Constantin just released the godfather of all watches with the Les Cabinotiers Solaria Ultra Grand Complication-La Première—the most complicated wristwatch ever produced. You might need an instruction manual to understand it, but we’ll boil it down to some of the highlights that make this watch exciting beyond it’s overarching badge of honor.

It follows the Vacheron Constantin Ref. 57260 pocket watch released by the brand last year that held the previous record as the most complicated watch ever produced and it surpasses previous records for the most complicated wristwatches ever produced, the Patek Philippe Grandmaster Chime Ref. 6300A-010 and the Vacheron Constantin Les Cabinotiers Celestia Astronomical Grand Complication 3600. What is extraordinary is not just the fact that Vacheron Constantin was able to do 41 complications, but rather that it was able to pack the 1,521 components required to make them into a caliber measuring 36 mm by 10.96 mm and a case of 45 by 14.99 mm.

It is the brainchild of Vacheron Constantin watchmaker, Jean-Marie Bouquin, who, incredibly, is just 44 years old. (The Celestia from 2017, which has 23 complications, was also the work of Bouquin.) To put that into context, it takes a watchmaker trained in making minute repeaters typically 10 years to master that craft. Of the 8 years it took to make the Solaria, an entire year was dedicated to the assembly of the movement alone. Bouquin was the sole watchmaker on the piece working on everything save for the finishing of the movement. (The Berkley Ref. 57260 by contrast had three watchmakers from Les Cabinotiers working on the piece.) This timepiece not only has a Westminster carillon minute repeater—integrated into the tourbillon with the chronograph and tourbillon—it also comes packed with a Gregorian perpetual calendar, split-second chronograph, a sidereal time indicator and much, much more. The minute repeater alone lays claim to 7 out of 13 total patents in this master work. In short, the Solaria boasts every single mind-bending complication you could think of. One wonders if Bouquin was learning watchmaking straight out of the womb.

We won’t go into the full explanation of every single piece of information this timekeeper can relay (you can see the full list below), but we’ll call out a few highlights. There are several astronomical functions, but the most entertaining one is the temporal tracking of celestial observations. To put it simply, you can pick a star or celestial body you wish to see in real life on the sky map on the caseback and then activate the split-second chronograph until you pass the green rectangular marker and then land on the star of your choice. A green triangle in the center of the caseback will point to the hour that it will appear in the sky from your location. At base level, it’s a pretty neat party trick, but its engineering is a work of art combining two different complications for the first time, for a new purpose.

Driving the five astronomical complications, which have never before been combined, is a single two-sided monobloc multi-cam. The patented component essentially combines four cams driven by the tropical gear to reduce thickness, add precision, and save energy. “When you have many different astronomical functions, you have to make sure that the indexation of all the cams is absolutely to size, and of course it takes up a lot of space,” Christian Selmoni told a select group of journalists at the manufacture yesterday afternoon. “So, Jean Marie invented a fabulous system, which is patented. We have one system which is driving five different astronomical functions.”

The big idea is not just the functions themselves, but how to miniaturize them—essentially, this is a feat of engineering in space saving. Incredibly, the power reserve is 80 hours and there is just one barrel for the movement and one for the chiming function. By comparison, the Celestia had six barrels to achieve three weeks of power reserve. The tourbillon is small, so it doesn’t take up too much energy. Its balance wheel is a combination of silicon and gold in order to minimize the weight and to optimize its quality. It is very precise and energy-saving despite the fact that it has a 28,000 Hz frequency.

Good engineering, of course, is also about refining to make things easier to use. Despite the ultra-complicated nature of this timepiece, Vacheron Constantin decided not only to make it easier to wear in size, but also easier on their service department. When the piece needs to be sent in for servicing or even restoration many decades in the future, it would take quite a long time due to the number of hands used on the timepiece. You would also have to remove the dial and the perpetual calendar to reach the movement, particularly the chiming part. Vacheron invented what is calls a “plug and play” system to solve for the problem. “It involves a connector between the movements and the additional plates so you remove the whole block, so you can reach the movement for service almost immediately,” says Selmoni. That, of course, garnered the company another patent, one that is almost certainly a time and cost-saver for the company.

There are plenty of other inventions like a patent for a world timer using a differential instead of springs, but ultimately, this watch is so incredibly complicated it could use its own publishing house to explain, in a series, it’s inner workings and nuanced finishes. You might assume that something this wild would be the kind of thing Vacheron might keep for its museum—that it might be purely an outrageous exercise in bragging rights and marketing for more commercial pieces. But it is, indeed, for sale. It is called “La Première” because it is the first, and in that sense, it is one-of-a-kind, but Vacheron Constantin will reuse the movement to create other pieces in different metals, colors, and aesthetics. But only the rarefied few will get their hands on one and you’ll likely never see one on the wrist. The Ref. 57260 pocket watch was rumored to have cost $8-10 million, so one can safely assume this timepiece will come with its own security detail and an impenetrable vault.

Every Complication in Les Cabinotiers Solaria Ultra Grand Complication-La Première

Time Measurement

Gregorian Perpetual Calendar

Lunar Indications

Astronomical Indications

Chiming Complications

Chronograph

Additional Features

Credit: robbreport.com