September 15, 2019

COMPLICATING MATTERS

by AHMED SEDDIQI & SONS

You might need a degree in watchmaking to get your head around how the finest mechanical complications work, but you only have to look at them to grasp how beautiful they are.

More often than not, an appreciation of fine watchmaking begins with aesthetic. Most love affairs with mechanical watches start with the way they look, and the way that look makes us feel. We may not all agree on what beauty is, but we can agree we all find it somewhere.

For many, in watches as in life, that initial fascination develops into an appreciation of what lies beneath and, specifically, with the complexities of a watch mechanism. How does a mechanical watch work? How is it made? And then, how far can watch mechanics be pushed?

The answer to that last question is ‘a very long way’. For centuries, right up to today, brilliant watchmakers with vivid imaginations and the intelligence to bring their ideas to life have created complex movements that can perform all manner of functions beyond telling the time. This, no doubt, is why those functions are known as ‘complications’.

Here, Ahmed Seddiqi & Sons presents a selection of the most complicated pieces from brands young and old that combine invention, beauty and all that is miraculous about mechanical watchmaking.

Ulysse Nardin Freak Vision

Contemporary enthusiasm for avant-garde mechanical watchmaking owes almost everything to the Freak. When Ulysse Nardin introduced it in 2001, it sent shockwaves through traditional fine watchmaking by doing away with conventions such as hands and a crown. Instead, the movement bridges became the hands, the time was set via the bezel, and the watch was wound by rotating the case back. The Freak also introduced silicon into watchmaking, a game-changing material that needs no lubrication and is much more resistant to shock and temperature changes than traditional materials. Silicon is the star again in this latest iteration of Ulysse Nardin’s hero, used in the star-like escapement wheel and the Ferris wheel-style gear train.

Greubel Forsey Double Tourbillon 30° Technique

Robert Greubel and Stephen Forsey are two of the leading lights of 21st century independent watchmaking. Firm believers in traditional techniques, they’re also pioneers, stretching the limits of mechanical watchmaking and, wherever possible, showing their working along the way. Typically, their scientific inventions are visible through the dial, creating a graphic, three-dimensional signature aesthetic. As the name suggests, this watch has two tourbillons – a device that caters for the negative effects of gravity on a mechanical watch movement – one of which is set at a 30-degree angle to improve precision. It also has a huge 120-hour power reserve.

F. P. Journe Tourbillon Souverain Vertical

Like so many lodestars of this current generation of independent watchmakers, F. P. Journe is a traditionalist and a detail obsessive, but also a visionary carving out new interpretations of traditional watchmaking techniques and functions. In his latest, he has taken the unconventional step of installing a tourbillon vertically, with the effect that it sits horizontally to the eye. This, he says, means the tourbillon functions constantly, even when it’s taken off and laid flat or on its side. The switch means the watch has heft (it’s 13.6mm deep), but because of the delicate finishing and use of softening materials (such as the ‘Clous de Paris’ hobnail dial and the Grand Feu enamel hour-and-minute subdial at 3 o’clock) it remains as graceful as anything the company has created before.

Chopard L.U.C Perpetual Chrono

Watch houses that can combine complications in-house are few and far between and as a result the ‘grandes complications’ watches they produce carry elevated status. Chopard cordons off its watches powered by its own movements in its L.U.C collection (the initials are founder Louis-Ulysse’s), and it’s here we find one of the collector complication combination favourites – a chronograph and a perpetual calendar. The pairing is a quality signifier on its own, but further kudos comes from the watch’s two independent certifications, one from COSC that chronometer certifies it for accuracy, and another from the lofty Poinçon de Genève, or the Hallmark of Geneva, which requires a particularly high level of finishing to both case and movement. On top of that, this watch is cased in 45mm of ethically sourced Fairmined rose gold. Such is the complexity involved, only 20 pieces are slated for production.

Ferdinand Berthoud FB1 Model 1.1 and 1.2

Ferdinand Berthoud may still be unfamiliar. It was launched in 2015 by the Chopard Group, named after a once forgotten 18th century master watchmaker and intended to create extremely fine watches in very low volumes. It’s climbed the ranks in double quick time since, winning the prestigious Aiguille d'Or at the Grand Prix d'Horlogerie de Genève in 2016 for its FB1. Here you can see two versions of that watch, one in white gold and titanium (Model 1.1), and one in rose gold and black ceramic (Model 1.2). The striking aesthetic they share is driven by its octagonal case and its unusual dial layout, which sets a subdial for the hours and minutes at 12 o’clock atop a vertical opening through which you can see its tourbillon. The opening at 9 o’clock indicates the 53-hour power reserve. Such is the detail involved in these watches that production is extremely limited – the 50 pieces announced at launch four years ago are still being delivered now.

H. Moser & Cie Endeavour Concept Minute Repeater Tourbillon

The independent watch company Moser, as it’s known, is famous for disguising its deliciously arcane movements with reductionist aesthetics, a philosophy illustrated in full in this Endeavour Concept Minute Repeater Tourbillon. Its tourbillon whirrs away at 6 o’clock, seen through an opening in the black lacquered dial, but what’s so singular about it is the visual expression of its minute repeater. A minute repeater chimes the time on demand via a hammer and gong system usually tucked away behind the dial and activated by a lever on the case flank. Moser has brought the pairing to the surface, while at the same time obscuring the complex mechanics behind it under the dial. The visual symphony this creates is one of the wonders of modern mechanical watchmaking.