Any feature of a timepiece beyond the display of hours, minutes and seconds
Three complications on aGallet MultiChron Navigator (1943): a crown-controlled synchronizable second hand, a direction-finding 24-hour hand, and a 45-minute recording chronograph
Inhorology, acomplication is any feature of atimepiece beyond the display of hours, minutes and seconds. A timepiece indicating only hours, minutes and seconds is known as a simplemovement. Common complications include date or day-of-the-week indicators, alarms,chronographs (stopwatches), and automatic winding mechanisms. Complications may be found in any clock, but they are most notable inmechanical watches where the small size makes them difficult to design and assemble. A typical date-display chronograph may have up to 250 parts, while a particularly complex watch may have a thousand or more parts. Watches with several complications are referred to asgrandes complications.
small seconds (seconds are displayed in a subdial)
Foudroyante (also called "flying seconds", a dedicated hand that completes a full rotation in one second indicating fractions of a second)
Many of these complications can result in watch defects, often due to watch owners manipulating mechanisms without an instruction manual, or disregarding "no-set-periods", time periods when no setting should be attempted, such as a certain phase before midnight when a watch with a date complication is already in the process of internally shifting discs.[1]
Tourbillon, a mechanical refinement to an escapement that mitigates the effects of gravity on the operation of a timepiece
Retrograde indication (hands sweep through an arc of a circle instead of the full circle, usually 90°, they spring back to 0° when they reach the 90° point and start sweeping again)
Dead second (the second hand moves once per second instead of once per oscillation as in common mechanical movements)
By some definitions, a display on a watch may be a complication even if it is unrelated to time-telling. Some horologists[who?] discount non-horological features (even those tangential to timekeeping such as winding limitations mechanisms or power reserves) as being true complications. Examples include:
Agrand(e) complication is a watch with several complications, the most complex achievements ofhaute horlogerie, or fine watchmaking. Although there is no official definition,[2] one common criterion is that a watch contain at least one (visible) timing complication, one astronomical complication, and one striking complication.[3]
Ultra-complicated watches are produced in strictly limited numbers, with some built as unique instruments. Some watchmaking companies known for making ultra-complicated watches areBreguet,Patek Philippe, andVacheron Constantin.[4] The initialultra-complicated watches appeared due to watchmakers' ambitious attempts to unite a great number of functions in a case of a single timepiece. The mechanical clocks with a wide range of functions, including astronomical indications, suggested ideas to the developers of the firstpocket watches. As a result, as early as in the 16th century, the horology world witnessed the appearance of numerous complicated and even ultra-complicated watches.
TheVacheron Constantin Les Cabinotiers Solaria Ultra Grand Complication – La Première, unveiled in 2025, is now widely regarded as the most complicated wristwatch in the world, featuring 41 complications and 1,521 components. Developed over eight years by a single watchmaker, it includes astronomical functions, a perpetual calendar, tide indicators, a minute repeater, and more. Powered by the Calibre 3655 with 13 patents, it was launched for the brand’s 270th anniversary at Watches and Wonders 2025.[16]
ThePatek Philippe Calibre 89 has 33 complications, using a total of 1,728 parts. It was released in 1989 to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the company.[17] The complications include the date ofEaster,sidereal time, and a 2,800-star celestial chart.
TheSupercomplication delivered toHenry Graves, Jr. in 1933 has 24 complications. The watch was reportedly the culmination of a watch arms race between Graves andJames Ward Packard. The Super-complication took three years to design and five to build, and sports a chart of the nighttime sky at Graves' home in New York. It remains the most complicated watch (920 parts)[18] built without the assistance of computers.[19]
The Star Caliber 2000 has 21 complications. They include sunrise and sunset times and the lunar orbit, and it is capable of playing the melody ofWestminster quarters (fromBig Ben, the clock tower of theHouses of Parliament in London).
TheFranck Muller Aeternitas Mega 4 is the world's most complicated wristwatch. It has 36 complications, 25 of them visible, 1,483 components and 1,000-year calendar.[20]
The Hybris Mechanica Grande Sonnerie is the world's second most complicated wristwatch. Powered by theJaeger LeCoultre Calibre 182 movement, with 27 complications and over 1,300 parts. The movement is housed in a 44 by 15 mm (1+3⁄4 by9⁄16 in)18 karat white gold case.[21]
^Perez, Carlos (10 June 2001)."Of the Blood Royal".Carlos' Journal. TimeZone.com. Archived fromthe original on 26 February 2008. Retrieved20 April 2008.
Perez, Carlos (10 June 2001)."Of the Blood Royal".Carlos' Journal. TimeZone.com. Archived fromthe original on 26 February 2008. Retrieved20 April 2008.
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