There is a kind of watch that does not appear in many styles and frequencies every year, but it can often shock the audience and show the brand's proud technical power as soon as it appears, and that is the big complication watch. There is no clear definition of a grand complication, but it usually refers to the combination of multiple top-level complications in a single watch, such as minute repeaters, perpetual calendars, chronographs, etc., and some grand complications even have more than ten or more complications at the same time.
In the past, the brand also paid more attention to wearability and convenience in addition to maintaining high-end craftsmanship, so collectors can wear these high-priced products like "wrist suites" more confidently when they go out for activities.
Occasionally, there will be such amazing and powerful watches in the watch world, and today we have selected two large and complex watches from the hands of big brands, and they themselves have a fairly high topic for everyone to taste, they no longer need to compare and evaluate each other, because it is already a great thing to make such a masterpiece in itself, and the rest is to appreciate the design and craftsmanship of the brand, and prepare to open your eyes.
爱彼11.59系列Universelle手表RD#4
Since Audemars Piguet launched its first R&D watch RD#1 in 2015, this series will debut every few years, and in 2023, there will be a sequel RD #4 after the 2022 Royal Oak ultra-thin automatic flying tourbillon, this time this R&D watch is from the CODE 11.59 series, different from RD#1~RD#3, which are all from the Royal Oak family, CODE 11.59 gave birth to the R&D watch for the first time, and it became the king's most complex self-winding watch under the brand as soon as it debuted.
The CODE 11.59 Universelle RD#4 collection has a total of 40 functions, including 23 complications, and it took AP a total of 7 years to develop this watch.
▲The case is made of white gold, the diameter of the case is slightly enlarged to 42mm, and Audemars Piguet also has three crowns and three pushers for the wearer to easily operate various complications of the watch.
Audemars Piguet was inspired by the creation of a Universelle movement in 1899, with 26 functions (including 19 complications such as grande sonneries, perpetual calendars, split-seconds chronographs, etc.), assembled using a total of 1,168 parts, which were later handed over to the Dürrstein, Uhrenfabrik Union in Germany The Glasshütte Manufacture, which in 1901 advertised the design of a Universal-Uhr pocket watch using this movement.
In the 1990s, it was bought by a collector at auction and returned to the Audemars Piguet vintage watch restoration workshop in 2012, which took four years to complete, and the Universelle pocket watch was acquired as the jewel of Audemars Piguet's "museum-workshop", which is a microcosm of the brand's watchmaking history.
The RD#4 was created to pay homage to the pinnacle of Audemars Piguet's in-house movement, and it is speculated that the brand must have had a plan to develop and create the movement, and then decided to install it in the CODE 11.59 series at a later stage of movement development (because the CODE 11.59 series had not yet been launched at the time when the movement was first conceived).
▲The dial mainly displays functions such as perpetual calendar, split-seconds chronograph and tourbillon, but its complications are far more than what you see on the dial.
Similar to the Universelle pocket watch, the RD#4 has 23 complications, the most complex of which are the chime, perpetual calendar, chronograph and tourbillon. Powered by the same acoustic system as the RD#1 series, which was developed by Audemars Piguet and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne over a period of eight years, the Minute repeater technology has been further optimised by readjusting the structure of the Minute repeater mechanism to allow a full view of the sophisticated movement mechanism hidden behind the resonance box on the case back.
In terms of the perpetual calendar function, the RD#4 also adheres to the patented technology of RD#2, reducing the movement structure from three layers to one layer, in which the brand incorporates the month-end date cam into the date wheel, and at the same time combines the month cam with the month wheel, which has the advantage of reducing the thickness of the movement.
The RD#4 is equipped with the same 1000 calibre as the two RD#3 models in 2022 – the amplitude oscillator, which has been redesigned to increase the amplitude of the balance wheel, which reduces the risk of collisions and friction between parts due to the escape system transmitting too much power to the oscillator at the same time, ensuring that the watch can always maintain high-precision timekeeping quality.
▲The watch adopts an officer-style case back, which can be pressed to the automatic disc and engraved with audio symbols after being opened, which means that the watch has super question watch technology.
The RD#4 is equipped with 1000 parts, which is on par with the Universelle movement, but the 1000 calibre is relatively more compact, with a diameter of only 34.3mm and a thickness of only 8.75mm, which is closely related to the RD# 4's overall thickness of 15.55mm.
With so many parts and complications in its own right, this movement is destined to be part of the watch of the year, but what is even more exciting about it is that AP has designed it to be more convenient for the wearer to wear, so the RD# 4 may be full of many push-buttons and hidden push-buttons unlike ordinary big complications, and it is enough to control the adjustment and winding of the entire watch with only three crowns and three pushers.
RD#4 is not the same as the usual Grand Complication watch, which is often defined as a single edition, as AP has released four versions for collectors to choose from, each in white or rose gold, and due to the size of the 1000 calibre compared to the previous code The 11.59 collection is equipped with a slightly larger and thicker movement, which makes it rare for the brand to slightly increase the case diameter to 42 mm, with the beige dial version having a chronograph subdial with gold indexes on a black background, and the minute scale on the outer edge of the dial is also beige, which complements the rose gold applied indexes and hands.
百达翡丽Grandmaster Chime 6300GR-001
Patek Philippe's most complicated watch on the line today is the Grandmaster Chime Master String Watch, 2023 will continue to innovate and usher in the new 6300GR-001, from the watch model it can be seen that it is a little different from the previous two white gold materials, the brand this time changed to a two-tone combination of white gold and rose gold, reinterpreting this super masterpiece with as many as 20 complications, and with the debut of 6300GR-001, the original white gold blue model 6300G-010 has also entered history and become an out-of-print masterpiece.
In fact, at the end of 2022, Patek Philippe simultaneously launched the gem-set version of 6300/400G-001 and 6300/401G-001, but they belong to the high jewelry version, so the 6300G-010 was not affected at that time, and as a result, after about half a year, there was a successor to 6300GR-001, making the original 6300G finally officially bid farewell to the stage.
▲6300 is a refreshing debut with a dual-material combination of white gold and rose gold, and at the same time, the side of the watch is carefully engraved with a Paris clough pattern, demonstrating the brand's delicate craftsmanship.
The 6300GR-001 is made of white gold for most of the case, and rose gold is used for the lugs, push-buttons, crown, minute repeater function start slider and other accessories.
A similar two-tone combination of white gold and rose gold is not new to Patek Philippe watches, and has been used in the past in the Grand Complications such as the 5303 and 5304, but these two pieces are mainly made of rose gold and embellished with other white gold parts, in the opposite situation of the 6300GR-001.
▲The front dial is coffee-colored, surrounded by three-dimensional rose gold hour markers, while the dial is also decorated with a Clou de Paris, where the wearer can read the main hours, minutes, dates and power reserves.
In addition to the functions of the top chiming watches, such as the large and minor sonnerie and minute repeater, this watch also has two unique patented designs, such as an alarm clock and a date announcement, bringing the owner an unprecedented auditory feast.
The front of the watch displays information such as striking switch, base time, GMT, moon phase, date, movement power reserve and striking power reserve. On the back, there are four subdials that display the perpetual calendar, including an analogue date, leap year cycle, day, month and 24-hour display, while the four-digit numeral year display wraps around the centre to further enhance the leap year display.
▲The back dial is also brown-colored, but Patek Philippe does not add engraving decoration, and purely uses symmetrical four subdials to indicate the various time units of the perpetual calendar.
The 6300G and the Patek Philippe 175th Anniversary 5175R are powered by the same GS AL 36-750 QIS FUS IRM CALIBRE, and before introducing its functions, we will understand how difficult it is to make and assemble this movement, which is a total of 1366 parts, which can be completed in a space of only 47.4 mm in diameter and 16.07 mm in thickness.
As mentioned above, there are 20 complications, including a large and small sonner, a minute repeater, an alarm clock, and even a one-step watch to tell the date, a three-hammer and three-reed mechanism to strike a more beautiful chime, as well as a perpetual calendar with a four-digit year display, which is rarely seen.
While showing its outstanding technical ability, Patek Philippe has planned a clear and unambiguous way of displaying the time for the watch and the intention of simplifying the adjustment and operation procedures as much as possible, such as the position of the crown display, the chiming mode display, etc., plus the various hidden quick-adjust buttons distributed on the side of the watch, etc., the adjustment or operation of the traditional grand complication function is a sweet burden for the watch owner, but Patek Philippe tries its best to make the use of the watch easier and more convenient.
AUDEMARS PIGUET CODE 11.59系列Universelle手表RD#4
18-carat white gold / 1000 automatic movement / Hours, minutes, large date, day, month, year / Large and small sonnerie / Minute repeater / Perpetual calendar / Split-seconds flyback chronograph function / Tourbillon mechanism / Moon phase display / Sapphire crystal / Water resistant to 20 meters / Diameter 42mm
PATEK PHILIPPE Grandmaster Chime 6300GR-001
White gold, rose gold / 300 GS AL 36-750 QIS FUS IRM Automatic / Hours, minutes, seconds, date, day, month, year, leap year cycle / Minute repeater / Perpetual calendar / GMT / Alarm / Moon phase / Day & night / Sapphire crystal / Diameter 47.7mm
Original source: World Watch
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