March 19, 2024

As the 2016 calendar turns from spring to summer today, we’ve gathered seven calendar watches that were introduced at this year’s SIHH watch fair in Geneva. Scroll down to see the watches, and enjoy the warmer days and shorter nights.

The A. Lange & Söhne Datograph Perpetual Tourbillon incorporates three major complications with five supplementary functions — a flyback chronograph, a perpetual calendar, and a tourbillon. All the calendar indications — including the aforementioned outsize date, the day-of the week, the month, and the leap-year displays in subsidiary dials – switch instantaneously, providing unambiguous readings at all times, and the ultra-precise moon-phase display is set to deviate from the true lunation by a single day after 122.6 years.

Lange Datograph Perpetual Tourbillon
A. Lange & Söhne Datograph Perpetual Tourbillon

The newest version of the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar goes for what many would consider old-school horological luxury with its classical yellow gold case. The watch is powered by in-house Caliber 2120 and boasts a deep blue Grande Tapisserie-patterned dial. The calendar displays are on prominent subdials at 9 o’clock (day), 12 o’clock (month and leap-year), and 3 o’clock (date). In addition, an astronomical moon-phase display appears at 6 o’clock and the week of the year is indicated on a numbered 1-52 chapter ring surrounding the dial.

Audemars Piguet Royal Oak QP - yellow gold - angle
Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar in yellow gold

The Baume & Mercier Clifton Chronograph Complete Calendar is the Clifton collection’s most complicated watch to date, combining two functions found in previous models, a chronograph and complete calendar. Like all models in the Clifton collection, it takes its design cues from the brand’s Golden Fifties watches from the 1950s and has an elegantly balanced tricompax dial: The month and day appear in apertures within the 12 o’clock subdial, which also serves as the 30-minute chrono counter; a moon-phase display, which completes one rotation every lunar month, shares the 6 ‘clock subdial with the chronograph’s 12-hour counter; and a 24-hour day-night indication completes the calendar functions at 9 o’clock. A red-tipped pointer hand indicates the date on the outer scale.

Baume & Mercier Clifton Chronograph Complete Calendar
Baume & Mercier Clifton Chronograph Complete Calendar

IWC introduced many new high-flying Pilots’ timepieces at SIHH, including the latest ticking tribute to the storied poet/author/aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry: the IWC Big Pilot’s Watch Annual Calendar Edition “Le Petit Prince” — the first IWC Pilot’s Watch equipped with the annual calendar complication (meaning today is the one day this year that you’d have to adjust it). A limited edition of 250 pieces in a rose-gold case and sunburst-finish blue dial, the watch also features a movement with an engraving of Exupery’s Little Prince character on the gold rotor.

IWC Big Pilot’s Watch Annual Calendar Edition “Le Petit Prince”

The Montblanc Heritage Chronograph Quantième Annuel (below) features both a chronograph function and an annual calendar. Each chronograph subdial serves a dual purpose for the calendar indications: the days of the week are displayed at 6 o’clock, the date at 12 o’clock, and the months at 9 o’clock. Adding intrigue to the calendar indications is a sophisticated moon-phase complication that occupies the subdial at 3 o’clock. A rose-gold hand points to four rose-gold-plated moons, each representing one of the four principal lunar cycles — new moon, first quarter, full moon and last quarter.

Montblanc Heritage Chronometrie Chronograph Quantieme Annuel - angle
Montblanc Heritage Chronomètrie Chronograph Quantième Annuel

The H. Moser & Cie Perpetual Calendar Heritage Limited Edition, a distinctively designed dual-cover wristwatch inspired by a late 19th-century pocketwatch from its archives, marks the Schaffhausen-based brand’s 10th anniversary. The pocketwatch-style case features decorative cloisonné enameled and guilloched covers and a grand feu enamel dial. Black Roman numerals mark the hours, with train-track-style rings for minutes and small seconds. The dovetail-shaped hour and minute hands are flame-blued, as well as those for the power reserve and small seconds. The third central hand, which is black, shows the months of the year using the twelve indices, as on the Endeavour Perpetual Calendar.

Moser-Perpetual-Calendar-Heritage-Limited-Edition-1
H. Moser & Cie. Perpetual Calendar Heritage Limited Edition

Vacheron Constantin introduced a completely revised Overseas collection at SIHH this year, including the Vacheron Constantin Overseas Ultra-Thin Perpetual Calendar. The watch is powered by the ultra-thin Caliber 1120 QP, which includes a moon-phase indication and and leap year indicator. The movement measures just 4.05 mm thick, while the case is only 8.1 mm thick. Like all the watches in the new Overseas collection, this one has been fitted with a soft-iron inner casings for anti-magnetic protection and is equipped with automatic winding via a large, 22k gold rotor engraved with a nautical, wind rose compass motif.

Vacheron Constantin Overseas Ultra-Thin Perpetual Calendar
Vacheron Constantin Overseas Ultra-Thin Perpetual Calendar
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