Which Is The Most Complicated Watch In The World?
Avid collectors of world-class, luxury timepieces actually welcome complications in their lives. In fact, in direct contrast to most things in life, the more complicated the watch, the more it is treasured. Luxury lifestyle aficionados, collectors and luxury watches retailers based in Dubai, understand and revere special watches with “grandes complications” that may have many thousands of working parts, uniting multiple functions of time, date, moon phases, astrological indications, alarms and more within a single watch case. These watches are extremely difficult and time-consuming to make, hence their collectability. A watch with “grandes complications” is generally considered one with more than 3 complications. However there are those watches called ultra-complicated, which are produced in limited quantities. These watches were produced as a result of watchmakers’ competitive attempts with each other to unite an amazing number of functions within a single timepiece. Ultra-complicated watches are produced in strictly limited numbers, some of them being one-of-a-kind. The best known ultra-complicated watch manufacturers include Breguet, Patek Phillipe, Franck Muller and Vacheron Constantin.
So which is the most complicated watch in the world? Just beating out the Patek Philippe Calibre 89 (a mere 33 complications) and the Henry Graves Super Complication with 24 complications (which fetched a whopping $24 million at auction last November), is the Franck Muller Aeternitas Mega 4, boasting a stunning 36 complications, 1483 components and 99 jewels.
Claimed to be the most complicated wristwatch ever made, the Mega 4 displays three time zones, a 999 year calendar, has a flyback chronograph and it chimes the Carillon Westminster melody on the hour – the same sound made by the clock tower in Westminster Cathedral – with small strikes on the quarter hour. It has a three day power reserve for the movement and a 24 hour reserve for the chime. The Perpetual Calendar display shows date retrograde, day, month, year, leap year/no leap year, equation of time. It has a winding shaft with two positions, 7 push pieces and 4 correctors. With a sun-stamped translucent lacquered white dial, Cintrée Curvex 18 karat white gold case and hand-sewn alligator strap, the Mega 4 is a marvel of precision and beauty, with a price-tag in the $2.7 million range. The race for the most complicated, technologically advanced timepieces in the world will no doubt continue as collectors and manufacturers alike strive to make – and own – the ultimate of representation of time, a complicated concept in and of itself. Appreciating the art of “haute horlogerie” is a much prized component of the essential lifestyle of Dubai, where owning an exquisite watch is de rigueur. We understand this quest for the best –and the most complicated. Our collection offers to buy fine watches in the Dubai and worldwide the chance to own a “complicated” masterpiece of their own.