An easy guide to the five main families of watch complications

For budding watch collectors keen on acquiring more technical timepieces, it is crucial to understand the foundations of complications: what they’re intended for and their contribution to horology.

Helming a public conference at Watches and Wonders 2024, Gianfranco Ritschel, a former watchmaker and master trainer at the Fondation Haute Horlogerie based in Geneva, paraphrased Albert Einstein’s sentiment: "If you can't explain something complex, it's just because you haven't understood it yourself."

Contrary to its name, watch complications are not intended to complicate matters, said Ritschel, but rather represent any function beyond the fundamental timekeeping of hours, minutes, and seconds. "We don't want to complicate life, we just want to find solutions to necessities or solutions to make it more efficient," he added, encapsulating the essence of complication development. 

Far from being impressive adornments, complications reflect centuries of horological innovation and craftsmanship. He highlighted the evolution of complications, expanding from traditional definitions to encompass many functions. Here are the five main categories, as presented.

Chronographs: From monopoussoir to flyback

Chronographs augment basic movements with additional mechanisms that allow for the measurement and recording of elapsed time. Recognisable by their push-buttons, counters, and distinct hands on the dial, chronographs serve various purposes, from calculating average speeds to facilitating astronomical calculations. 

For instance, the monopusher chronograph simplifies operation with a single push-button, while the flyback chronograph found utility in aviation with its unique ability to reset without stopping.

Other functions include the rattrapante (split-seconds) to measure multiple concurrent events, the tachymeter to record the speed over a known distance, the telemeter to measure the distance between the wearer and a visible event, as well as the pulsometer to record a person’s heart rate.

Calendar complications: A symphony of timekeeping

Calendar complications, designed to synchronise with the rhythm of daily life, offer intricate displays of temporal information. From simple big date and day/date mechanisms to annual calendars to perpetual and eternal calendars, they embody centuries of mathematical and mechanical ingenuity. 

Ritschel emphasised the perpetual and eternal calendars’ remarkable ability to account for irregularities in the Gregorian calendar, ensuring accuracy for generations to come — up to hundreds of years. Some manufactures also produce superbly exotic Chinese, Islamic, Japanese, and even ancient Mayan calendar watches.

Additionally, complications such as moon phase displays imbue poetic elegance to timepieces, connecting wearers with the celestial dance of the cosmos.

Tourbillon complications: Defying gravitational challenges

Tourbillon complications, which belong in the high-end realm of mechanical watchmaking, are born out of a quest for precision in the face of gravitational forces. Ritschel explained how Abraham-Louis Breguet's invention of the tourbillon cage — to house the watch’s balance, balance spring and escapement — revolutionised timekeeping by averaging out positional errors caused by gravity.

The flying tourbillon, meanwhile, is a modern iteration that does away with the upper bridge for the cage and is mounted only from below, offering enhanced visibility and aesthetic appeal. There are also multi-axis tourbillons, such as double and triple, that compensate for multi-position errors, ensuring even greater timekeeping accuracy.

Time zone complications: Bridging distances

Time zone complications enable wearers to navigate global time differences with ease. Ritschel highlighted the evolution of such complications, from simple dual-time displays to sophisticated world time mechanisms. 

A standard GMT watch, bearing a 24-hour hand pointing to a second time zone in addition to the hour, minute and seconds hands indicating the local time simultaneously, is one example. Some of these timepieces can even track a third time zone.

Brands like Vacheron Constantin and Patek Philippe, he pointed out, excel in crafting sophisticated timepieces that beautifully display multiple city time zones to cater for travellers and global citizens.

Minute repeater complications: A symphony of sound

Minute repeater complications marry mechanical complexity with auditory delight, allowing wearers to discern time through sound alone. Ritschel underscored the elaborate craftsmanship required to produce them, which chime out the exact time on-demand upon activating a push button, bolt, or slide.

Typically, minute repeaters use a system of two small hammers striking gongs to produce three different tones for the hours, quarter-hours, and minutes. Quarter repeaters chime the hours and quarter-hours, and five-minute repeaters sound the hours, quarter-hours, and five-minute periods after the quarter. 

These highly complex and labour-intensive creations, once reserved for royalty and nobility, now grace the wrists of discerning collectors.

Grand complications: A special mention

Grand complications are considered the apex of horological engineering and incorporate many functions within a single timepiece. Beyond showcasing technical prowess, such creations truly honour the rich heritage of mechanical watchmaking.

Ritschel singled out Vacheron Constantin's groundbreaking achievement with the 2015 launch of its 57260 pocket watch, which features 57 complications. Smashing the maison’s own record is its latest masterpiece, the Les Cabinotiers — The Berkley Grand Complication, currently the title holder of the world’s most complicated watch. 

The fruit of 11 years of development, including a year entirely devoted to its assembly, the creation flaunts an unprecedented 63 complications and 2,877 components.