Vacheron Constantin Has Made the World’s Most Complicated Wristwatch
It took one man eight years to conceive and build the Solaria, a double-sided timepiece that includes 41 complications and yet measures only 45mm across.
The many looks of the Les Cabinotiers Solaria.
Source: Vacheron Constantin
Vacheron Constantin, the oldest continually operating Swiss watch brand, just revealed the world’s most complicated wristwatch. The Les Cabinotiers Solaria Ultra Grand Complication is a double-sided technological feat that took eight years of research and development. It boasts a record-setting 41 complications, including five astronomical functions—one of which is the first of its kind. And it was all developed, engineered, and assembled by a single master watchmaker.
Vacheron Constantin has filed 13 patent applications for this watch, whose new movement, Caliber 3655, consists of a mind-boggling 1,521 hand-assembled, hand-finished components. In fact, just the assembly of the movement itself (the engine of the watch) took almost a year to complete. In addition to the five astronomical complications that have never been combined in a wristwatch before, it also features a specially-conceived minute repeater with Westminster chime (which sounds the time on demand using four hammers and four gongs in different tones), for which seven of the 13 patents were filed.