World’s ‘most complicated’ wristwatch unveiled

The Swiss watchmaker’s new timepiece tracks the sun’s position, chimes with the sound of miniature gongs and even calculates when the zodiac’s constellations will be visible from Earth.

It tracks the sun’s position in the sky. It chimes with the sound of hammers hitting four miniature gongs. It even tells the wearer when certain stars will be visible from Earth. Swiss watchmaker Vacheron Constantin’s latest timepiece is not just packed with novel features — it is, officially, the most complicated mechanical wristwatch ever produced. In horology, a “complication” refers to any function that goes beyond standard time-telling, such as a Gregorian calendar or moon phase display. And Vacheron Constantin’s new Les Cabinotiers Solaria Ultra Grand Complication contains a record-breaking 41 of them. The one-off design, which went on show at the Watches and Wonders trade fair in Switzerland on Tuesday, comprises 1,521 separate components. The watchmaker is seeking to protect its new creation through 13 patent applications, seven of which relate to the chiming mechanism. Seen by CNN during a fair preview, the watch presents three different measures of time: A conventional 24-hour-day, the sidereal time (the time taken for Earth to spin on its axis, which is around four minutes shorter than a calendar day) and the solar day (which is adjusted for the Earth’s elliptical orbit). Among the dozens of other complications are astronomical functions tracking the sun’s position, height, trajectory and angle relative to Earth’s equator. A rotating display featuring the zodiac’s 13 constellations can meanwhile be adjusted to show when those stars will next be visible in the sky.