THE JOURNAL

How much do you know about the three major watch complications?

News centrePublished 2014-04-17

Throughout history, the watchmaking world has never ceased its pursuit of technology; even reducing an error by 0.1 seconds can make them ecstatic. Throughout the ages, among the many watch technologies, the three major complications universally recognised are the minute repeater, tourbillon, and perpetual calendar. You may already be very familiar with these three functions, but I would like to introduce them one by one here.

Minute Repeater

A minute repeater is a watch with three gongs that produce different sounds to distinguish the time by “ hours ”, “ quarters ”, and “ minutes ”, representing a clever application of acoustics and dynamics. A repeater is a watch that strikes the time, usually activated by a button or slide on the case to trigger a series of mechanisms that produce sound. Typically, there is a slide or button on the side of the case; when moved or pressed, it drives a series of mechanisms in the striking train, using small hammers and circular gongs to strike and produce sound, allowing the time to be distinguished by ear. The low tone indicates the hour, for example: “ dong, dong, dong ”, 3 strikes means 3 o'clock. Next is the quarter-hour strike, usually a combination of high and low tones, for example: “ ding-dong, ding-dong ”, which is two quarters (30 minutes). Following this, the high tone indicates the minutes, for example: “ ding, ding, ding, ding, ding ”, 5 strikes is 5 minutes, so the current time is 3 o'clock and 35 minutes.

Blancpain Minute Repeater Watch

Tourbillon

This is likely the most familiar feature to everyone; it has even been referenced in Eason Chan's songs, and often we can see this mechanism directly through the watch crystal. The tourbillon is a regulating device invented by Swiss master watchmaker Louis • Breguet in 1795 to correct errors caused by gravity on watch components. A tourbillon watch represents the highest level of mechanical watchmaking craftsmanship, with the entire escapement and regulating mechanism combined and rotating at a constant speed to minimise the influence of gravity on the “ escapement system ” of the mechanical watch, thereby improving timekeeping precision. Due to its unique operation, it has elevated the dynamic artistic beauty of horology to its peak and has long been hailed as the “ King of Watches ”.

A. Lange & Söhne Tourbillon Watch

perpetual calendar

The English name for a perpetual calendar watch is Perpetual Calendar, which literally means an eternal calendar. It can recognise the current month, the current year, and even whether it is a leap year. It will automatically insert the 29th day into 2 in a leap year. Therefore, as long as the watch is running well, the only time it needs to be adjusted is at the end of 2 in a non-leap year every 100 years, such as 2100. For mechanical watches, there is no compiler to store the calendar, so watchmakers can only choose to use precision gears to “ 'memorise' ” the special years within 100 years. The vast majority of perpetual calendar watches can only run until 2100. By that year, they will need to be sent to a watch shop for adjustment. There are 365 days in a year, divided into 12 months, of which 12 months have 7 days, 31 months have 4 days, and 30 months have 1 or 28 or 29 days. One can imagine the engineering difficulty of fitting such a complex algorithm into a small case using gears of various sizes. It is precisely because of this difficulty that the perpetual calendar is ranked among the three major complications.