Although the word could be misleading, complications in a watch indicate how sophisticated the watch is and how much precision is required to make the watch. The more complications on a watch, the higher the value of the timepiece will be. So, what are actually watch complications?
These are the additional functions on a watch that tells a lot of things other than just the time. They range from simple complications like day-date to highly complex complications like a perpetual calendar.
Here you will see a quick overview of the most famous watch complications you must know as a watch lover. Let’s get started.
How Important Are watch Complications?
You might have seen different types of watch dials containing multiple elements under the hood. These elements perform various functions to make the watch more beneficial than just knowing the time. Watch complications like day or date can be helpful while signing any document as you can write the date without looking at the calendar or pulling your phone out.
A chronograph can be used in a race track to measure the fractions of a second, and the world timer can be helpful to determine someone else’s local time before calling them. Regardless of the complexity levels, these watch complications are quite useful in your daily life.
Watch Complications You Should Know About
Here are 14 popular watch complications. Give them the attention they deserve.
1. Day-Date
Day-date is a simple variation of date complications where two windows on the dial show the date and the weekday. You can adjust the date and the day using a crown on the side. Watches with this complication need to be adjusted after the month is over.
2. Tourbillon
As you already might know, the amount of time in a day can change depending on the geolocation. Regular mechanical watches have a fixed escapement which can’t cancel the gravity effect. And here, the tourbillon comes into play.
It is a mechanism where the balance wheel, balance spring, and escapement constantly moves to cancel the time-keeping change caused by gravity. In short, it’s a way to increase the accuracy of watches.
3. Moon Phase
Watch enthusiasts highly praise this Moon Phase complication for its technical complexity and beauty. It tracks the lunar cycle and shows the moon’s phase through a circular aperture. The moon phase will appear the same we see the moon from earth. This complication was highly popular among sailors to determine the time of high and low tides.
4. Perpetual Calendar
In watches with simple date complications, you need to adjust the date every month. But with a perpetual calendar in the arsenal, the timepiece will show the right date and time by taking the length of months into consideration. Such a watch will need no adjustment till 2100, as that will not be a leap year.
The complexity of this complication is way too high, so you can only expect this in only expensive watches.
5. Chronograph
Chronographs are very popular in watches, which allow you to use them as stopwatches. They have several variations. Monopusher chronographs are more common, where you can start and stop the chronograph with a single button.
Flyback chronographs don’t need multiple pushes to stop and return to zero, so they are also very popular. Split-second chronographs can be identified by 3 pushers and 2-second hands and they’re used to time separate events that start together but don’t end together.
6. Minute Repeater
This complication was more common during the 18th and 19th centuries when luminous dials weren’t available. The minute repeater chimes to announce the minutes, quarter hours, or hours with the activation of the side lever. All the chimes are different so that the wearer can easily understand the time at night.
7. GMT
For professionals like pilots or people who travel around the globe a lot, this complication can be very helpful. In GMT complication with a fixed hour hand, an additional hour hand is used along with a 24-hour time scale on the sides.
8. World Timer
GMT complication lets you see the time in two or three time zones at maximum. But the world timer lets you see 24 time zones across the world. In such watches, the name of major cities in respective time zones is inscribed in place of watch indices on the inner side of the dial. This makes a complete rotation every day. And the other side of the dial can be adjusted by the user.
9. Alarm
With this complication, you can set the alarm time according to your needs, and this time will be independent of the time shown on the main dial. Once the main dial reaches the alarm time, the watch will beep to make you aware of the time. You can set multiple alarm times on some watches.
10. Annual Calendar
As the name suggests, annual calendars need to be adjusted only once every year. They take the length of months other than February into consideration. So, you need to manually adjust the date to the 28th or 29th of February month, and the calendar will continue to show the right date for one more year.
11. Planetarium
This can simply be the pinnacle of all complications where the watch shows various information related to our own planet and other planets. Besides showing the solar system, these watches also let you calculate EoT. So, knowing the difference between solar time and calendar time is pretty easy with this complication.
12. Power Reserve Indicator
You need to wind the mainspring after a certain time in mechanical watches. The power reserve indicator will show you how much time is remaining before you need to wind the watch again. In some watches, you might see analog dials, and other watches might show the days or hours in digits.
13. Tachymeter
Tachymeter complications usually come with the chronograph complication, and it is used to measure the speed. You can measure the speed in kilometers per hour or miles per hour units. This complication is widely popular among people who love running and racing.
14. Jumping Hour
It is more of a low-level complication where the hour hand isn’t present on the main dial. Instead, a smaller aperture on the dial shows the hour. And the hour hand directly jumps onto the next hour after the minute hand has completed one full rotation.
Conclusion
Watch complications let the wearer see much necessary information rather than just the time. Putting these complications in place shows the ultimate example of craftsmanship, which is why watch complications are highly admired and sought after by enthusiasts.
We tried to compile some of the most famous watch complications here to give you a quick idea of how these complications function. So, you can now decide which complications you want in your next watch purchase.