Vacheron Constantin Puts a Record on the Wrist

New York Times

01-04-2025

Vacheron Constantin's record-breaking run continues. Having cornered the record for the world's most complicated pocket watch last year with the Les Cabinotiers Berkley Grand Complication and its 63 functions, the luxury Swiss watchmaker has now set a benchmark for the world's most complicated wristwatch: the Les Cabinotiers Solaria Grand Complication, with 41 functions.
The one-of-a-kind watch, which the brand said took eight years to develop and had 13 patents, was not commissioned by a private client. Instead, it was created for Vacheron's 270th anniversary, this year.
'We always have one or two projects like Solaria in our minds and some are stopped because of various factors, but the idea is always to demonstrate our excellence in high craftsmanship and watchmaking,' said Sandrine Donguy, Vacheron Constantin's product and innovation director.
What are the Solaria's complications? As well as regular indications such as the time and date, and recognized high-end watchmaking functions such as a perpetual calendar, a split-seconds chronograph (which can time two events simultaneously) and five chiming functions, it has 14 astronomical functions, five of which Vacheron has said are appearing in a watch for the first time.
Four of those track the sun, hence the watch's name, while the fifth shows the hours until a particular star appears in the sky. 'It's like a little telescope on the wrist,' Ms. Donguy said.
The watch, she added, was made possible by the technological advances of artificial intelligence-powered manufacturing that can produce tiny components to microscopic tolerances.
'The ingenuity of this project was in combining high complications with miniaturization, which allowed us to have these tiny components,' she said, noting that the company had worked to tolerances of a tenth of a millimeter.
As a result, Vacheron has squeezed the watch's 1,521 components into a 45 millimeter white gold case that is slightly less than 15 millimeters thick. Indications are displayed on both sides of the watch, allowing Vacheron to preserve its typical clean dial aesthetic.
Manufacturing and ergonomic challenges have meant that watches with large numbers of complications are few and far between. Patek Philippe's best effort has been its Grandmaster Chime with 20 complications. The most complicated watch before the Solaria is thought to have been Franck Muller's $2.7 million Aeternitas Mega 4, with 36 complications.
How much further can Vacheron go? 'Sometimes, industry is not mature enough to allow us to go further,' Ms. Donguy said. 'But I will come back to humanity's quest always to look further. What about a display that looks up from the moon, that looks at the sun from a different angle? The possibilities are endless.'