Grande Complication
Grande Complication is the French name for a complex mechanical movement of a wrist or pocket watch which, in addition to the normal movement (with hours, minutes and seconds), also has frames with several other functions ( complications , French: complication ). Since the term is not defined uniformly with regard to the type and number of complications, it is primarily a marketing term .
Additional functions
A Grande Complication in pocket watches was first built in Switzerland in the second half of the 19th century, in the Vallée de Joux . The name is also used today for wristwatches with such a range of functions.
Increases in addition no longer have their own name, but are known by their name. So z. B. the pocket watches of the Caliber 89 with a total of 33 additional functions and the Star Caliber 2000 with a total of 22 additional functions, both from Patek Philippe . More examples are given below.
Perpetual calendar
The perpetual calendar shows the day of the month , day of the week , month and year . The special thing about it is the fact that the leap years are longer by one day in February . In addition, there are perpetual calendars that not only take into account the “4” rule, but also the exceptions for the centuries. Half-yearly calendars (also called four-year calendars ) do not have an automatic correction mechanism for leap years, but take into account the shorter duration of February and only have to forego February 29th every four years. Annual calendars , however, have to be corrected manually on March 1st each year.
Chronograph
A chronograph is a watch with a stopwatch function. The correct name for this function would be chronoscope , but this name did not catch on. A flyback function describes the possibility of resetting the pointer to "0" during a short-term measurement. As rattrapante or split-seconds -chronograph is called a chronograph with an additional pointer that can be stopped to split time display and then the further speed pointer is adjusted again. This process takes one minute. The double rattrapante can last up to half an hour.
Striking mechanisms
One beat every hour, two every quarter of an hour and one for every additional minute; this forms the big ringing ("Grande Sonnerie"). Versions that keep the time on demand are called repetitions . Originally this was a function of a clock intended for the blind or for the night time.
Self-striking mechanism
A self- striking mechanism is a device that automatically strikes the time (French: en passant ) on a bell or gong (as opposed to a minute repeater, which only works on request):
- Grande Sonnerie (big blow): strikes the hour and the quarter hour every quarter hour
- Petite Sonnerie (small blow): only strikes the hours
repetition
A minute repeater hammer mechanism is a device that strikes the past hours, quarters and minutes on a bell or gong on demand.
Today it is no longer known when the first portable watch was fitted with a repeater striking mechanism and who was to build it. What is certain is that in an arbitration award to King James II of England in 1687, Daniel Quare (1649–1724) was awarded the patent for a pocket watch with an hour and ¼-hour repeater mechanism . It remains unclear whether this watch was really the first and whether he was the actual inventor.
In general, the following systems still exist in striking clocks today:
- Quarter repeater, only the past hours and quarters are struck
- Half-quarter or seven and a half minute repeater, also called eighth repeater
- Five minute repeater
- Minute repeater
- Self-bat
- Carillons (musical mechanism)
There are also clocks that have a musical mechanism in addition to the striking mechanism, usually in combination with a quarter-hour striking mechanism. At the top of the hour, this sounds either automatically or on request. In addition, watches with a self-striking mechanism also have variants with a half-hour striking mechanism. These then strike the full hour and every half hour with a hammer. Another special feature are clocks with a "glass" strike (Sonnerie de Bord), naturally designed as a self-striking mechanism. If the gong springs in clocks are guided around the movement in two ways, the sound produced in this way is called the “cathedral beat”.
The carillon not only requires more individual parts and components, it also requires a higher amount of extra work in the completion and coordination, the regulation and finissage .
Mechanical alarm clock
Depending on the version, the work emits a subtle “snarling” or a melodic chime (with a gong or bell). With a monthly alarm clock (synonymous wristwatch with appointment calendar function), the alarm date can be set to one day of the month, e.g. B. the Senator diary from Glashütte Original . There are also wrist alarm clocks that wake you up with a melody from a musical mechanism, e.g. B. the Réveil Musical by Breguet .
Automatic night shutdown
When the night shutdown is activated, the striking mechanism (s) will be switched off automatically between 10 p.m. and 7.15 a.m. (clockworks with a quarter-hour strike) or between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. An additional mechanism and a special time curve prevent the striking mechanism or striking mechanisms from being triggered.
Other additional functions
The following (alphabetically sorted and) incomplete list offers a small overview of what can be possible in the small space (volume) of a pocket watch or wristwatch:
- 7-day movement: a movement that offers 7 days instead of 42 to 48 hours of power reserve.
- Astrolabe
- Automatic winding (automatic): this winds the clock spring by moving the watch itself. The inertia of a built-in flywheel (now by a rotor, earlier with a pendulum flywheel ) is used, see automatic watch .
- Chronometer regulation with stopping seconds hand.
- Countdown counter
- Quick date setting
- Eternal moon phase display: a lunar cycle from full moon to full moon ( synodic month ) lasts exactly 29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes and 2.9 seconds, which are taken into account more precisely in an eternal moon phase display , so that in 122 years there is a deviation of only one day will come.
- Foudroyante (French for 'lightning-like'): display of fractions of a second with a separate hand
- Large date display: the two digits of the date display are shown on two dials, which makes a larger display possible than if only one disk is used. These disks must be coordinated accordingly.
- Power reserve indicator : a small hand that shows the time until the watch has stopped.
- Annual calendar : display of day, day of the week and month, taking into account the differences in the length of the month.
- Calendar week display
- Small seconds: the second hand turns in its own circle outside of the center.
- Small seconds with stop device: when the watch is set - i.e. the crown is pulled out, the second hand stops. This means that you can start exactly.
- Regulator : This refers to a clockwork in which the hour and minute hands do not move concentrically in the same circle, but are arranged in two separate circles.
- Retrograde displays: Instead of circular scales only sections of a circle, the pointer jumps back to the starting position after reaching the end of the scale.
- Retrograph: with the retrograph , two second hands share the display of one minute. The first hand jumps back to 0 after 30 seconds, while the second hand takes over the display of the seconds after that.
- Spielwerk
- jumping date change
- Constellation display or signs of the zodiac
- Sidereal time display
- Tourbillon : a special bearing in the movement to reduce rate inaccuracies. Since the tourbillon has no additional function, it is not actually a complication.
- Four-digit year display: each digit of the year is shown with its own number disc. The reduction between the second hand and the century disc is 6,315,840,000 to 1. While a point on the balance wheel covers around 1.6 million kilometers, the display of the century moves 1.2 millimeters.
- Full calendar (full calendar): complete calendar with date, day of the week and month display (manual correction required in months with less than 31 days).
- Day of the week: Monday to Sunday are displayed.
- Equation of time
- Second time zone : a second hour hand indicates a second time zone, usually in combination with a day / night display and a time zone scale. Alternatively, there are also rotating bezels with hour or time zone scaling.
Grande Complication Watches
Piguet / Muller / Gerber Complication
The original ladies' pendant watch was designed by Louis Elysée Piguet in 1892 with a minute repeater and striking mechanism with Grande and Petite Sonnerie and 491 handcrafted parts.
In 1989 it came into the possession of the watchmaker Franck Muller , who provided it with a platinum case, a perpetual calendar with month and equation display, weekday, date, 24-hour and leap year cycle display, moon phase and thermometer, expanding it to 651 parts.
The Swiss watchmaker Paul Gerber spent eleven years working on what was then the most complicated wristwatch in the world , which he expanded to 1,116 pieces and which received an entry in the Guinness Book of Records in 2005 . As an additional complication, Gerber designed the smallest, flying (suspended) tourbillon in the world, a split-seconds chronograph with flyback function, a jumping minute counter and two power reserve displays for the walking and striking mechanism.
Further examples
In 1902 A. Lange & Söhne, Glashütte, built the pocket watch Grande Complication No. 42500 , a unique piece that consists of 833 individual parts and reappeared in 2001 as lost. It has been extensively restored by the manufacturer.
Other well-known Grande Complication wristwatches are z. B. Primo 4 from Mermod Frères with 577 individual parts, the Grande Complication from IWC with 659 individual parts, the Sky Moon Tourbillon from Patek Philippe with 686 individual parts, the 1735 from Blancpain with 740 individual parts, the Tour de l'Île from Vacheron Constantin with 834 Individual parts, the tourbograph Pour le Mérite from A. Lange & Söhne with 1097 individual parts, the Hybris Mechanica à Grande Sonnerie from Jaeger-LeCoultre with 27 complications and over 1300 individual parts and the Aeternitas Mega from Franck Muller with 36 complications and 1483 individual parts.
literature
- George Daniels: Watchmaking . Philip Wilson Publishers, London 2011, ISBN 978-0-85667-704-5 .
- Hermann Brinkmann: The watchmaking school, a series of specialist books for vocational training . Wilhelm Knapp Verlag, Düsseldorf 2005, ISBN 3-87420-010-8 .
- Michael Stern: Handbook for the watchmaking trade, work skills and materials , reprint from 1951, Heel Verlag, 2010, ISBN 978-3868522884 .
- Manfred Fritz: Grande Complication. Schaffhausen 1991.
- François LeCoultre: Complicated pocket watches. Neuchâtel 1985.
- Donald de Carle: Complicated Watches and Their Repair. Reprint London 1978.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Helmut Kahlert , Richard Mühe , Gisbert L. Brunner , Christian Pfeiffer-Belli: wrist watches: 100 years of development history. Callwey, Munich 1983; 5th edition, ibid 1996, ISBN 3-7667-1241-1 , p. 506.
- ^ Helmut Kahlert , Richard Mühe , Gisbert L. Brunner , Christian Pfeiffer-Belli: wrist watches: 100 years of development history. Callwey, Munich 1983; 5th edition, ibid 1996, ISBN 3-7667-1241-1 , p. 506.
- ↑ The magazine of Bank Privat No. 4, December 2006