When asked ‘what makes you tick?’ the engineers at Vacheron Constantin sure know what to answer – and fast, too. Less than a year after last year’s horological kettlebell, the 960g Berkley Grand Complication, a new invention had to be worked out. And so, they delivered. Vacheron Constantin’s Solaria Ultra Grand Complication is more than just the world’s most complicated wristwatch. It’s a fine bit of precision engineering, packed with 41 complications, 13 pending patents, and a real-time star tracker the size of a 2-Euro coin.
Yes, there’s a Westminster chime and a tourbillon, but the real novelty is a dual-sapphire sky chart that lets you track constellations using a split-second chronograph. Start the chrono at dusk, aim your arrow at the stars, and it’ll tell you when a chosen star will appear overhead that night.
Built by a single watchmaker over eight years, the 36mm-wide movement houses 1,521 parts and 204 jewels. Despite the mad complexity, the watch stays wearable at just 45mm wide and 15mm thick, smaller than your average Seamaster. This is a wonder of analog computational mechanics. Just before you think of getting it gifted for Christmas, think twice – rumors are it’ll be quite pricey.
Oh, wonderful! Now I want a 3D-printed one out of PLA. Does not have to be wearable, though…
Anybody know how to sell a kidney? Asking for a friend.
You’d probably need to sell your friend’s kidneys, too
I’m not into timepieces, but I love the fact that this field has quantified complication.
42 would have been the optimum.
The 42nd complication is being able to buy one..
is this a entry for the one hertz challenge?
It’s on 3hz, I guess it doesn’t qualify.
How much did they pay for this “article”
“(…)the Vacheron Constantin Solaria Ultra Grand Complication (…) its price has not been disclosed – but do expect a hefty 7-figure tag.”
source: https://monochrome-watches.com/vacheron-constantin-solaria-ultra-grand-complication-world-most-complicated-wristwatch-41-complications-270th-anniversary-introducing/
That is minimum 10 000,99 for a wrist watch. If they speak dollars rather than rupees we are not really a target crowd.
that’s 7 figure without cents… you’re talking milions there…
We don’t know that for sure ;-)
ps.
Sorry for the missing “:)” after figures.
well, given 8years of a watchmaker in swiss, just the labor is already well over a million…
sir, this is a hackaday, not a hodinkee
This is definitely not a watch that I would want to try to service! 204 jewels! WOW!
That complexity makes me want to, getting to pull out its guts and really see the ‘magic’ in a way practically nobody else ever will is enticing as a prospect. Though at the price I expect it would be, and how small and no doubt delicate once removed some of these parts will be I’d be very nervous touching it too… I might be a good enough machinst with the tools to at least make the right tools to then replace and repair anything should I screw up, but given this things tiny scale I’m not that confident in that either.
What a crazy but genius bit of work.
One could hope that there would be CAD files for it that could be “taken apart” and admired.
CAD is great, but it just isn’t the same as seeing things for real. You can’t marvel at the stupidly tiny screw on a display that makes it look more like M12 etc.
Wonder if it would qualify for the 9th wonder of the world…. Amazing.
Couldn’t you do the same thing with a 555?
“real-time star tracker”? Seriously?
So if it’s that good a chronometer and a real time star tracker, can you do celestial navigation with it?
Not a real-time star tracker. With some manual Chronograph timing, aligning the hands with clues on the astronomical dial, you can “calculate” (for lack of a better word) when a star of choice will come into view. Similar how you “calculate” your speed on a racing/pilot chronograph.
It used to be that if someone was long-winded you’d say that if you asked what time it was, they’d tell you how the watch is made. But in this case, I’d really would have liked the article to give some clues as to how the watch is made.
Oh and if you could have an article or two about Swiss 9+ DOF CNC machines, that would be a bonus.
I repair, maintain and geometrically calibrate CnC machines in Switzerland, fairly often for big watch brands (cough cough crown logo), most of them have more DoF than I have fingies. Shoot your shot, what you wanna to know?
“Just before you think of getting it gifted for Christmas, think twice – rumors are it’ll be quite pricey.”
Meanwhile, in China, some bloke is duplicating all this complexity on a smart watch and it’ll be priced under $100…
(I’d buy it :) )
Me too ..
How accurate is it?
To be called a “chronometer” it needs to be within -4 to +6 seconds per day, calibrated in 5 different positions and three temperatures (though I don’t think all 15 combinations). This Ultra Grand Complication is at least at chronometer level, likely even better. Additionally, the moon complication is accurate for 122 years without adjustment.
As much as I love clcokworks, I also love my free smartwatch dial that does those things also lol.
I wish I could find a watch face that could do all this, and in addition, the things mechanical watches can’t: showing a 24h graph of some function (like height of the sun in the sky), with the current value marked. Oh, and of course 2~3 “WearOS complications” for fitness/app launchers.
I’m curious, the watch face you talk about, did you make it yourself? (as you call it “my free smartwatch dial”) For what platform/app? I’m also interested in learning how to make faces for either my Galaxy watch or my TicWatch, but they have harsh limitations, like not being able to show different ‘views’ on demand.