Three hands would be enough to tell the time. In the Berkley Grand Complication there are 31 of them, spread across two dials along with 63 functions and 2,877 mechanical components. All inside a white gold case 98 millimeters wide and weighing 960 grams. Calling it a pocket watch requires some confidence in the stitching.
Vacheron Constantin presented it in 2024 after eleven years of development, one spent just assembling it. It is the watch with the greatest number of complications ever built: it measures time, follows calendars and moon phases, shows the sky above Shanghai and already knows when the Chinese New Year will fall until 2200. On the price, however, it maintains much more effective confidentiality.
What are the 63 complications
In watchmaking parlance, one complication it is any function that goes beyond simply indicating hours, minutes and seconds. A date display is already a complication. So are a chronograph, an alarm, a perpetual calendar, an audible repeater or the indication of multiple time zones. The simple ability to say that it’s a quarter past three, here, hardly makes a resume.
The Berkley Grand Complication combines chronometric, astronomical and sound functions. It shows the Gregorian calendar, the phases and age of the Moon, the time in different areas of the world, the zodiac signs and a sky chart with the constellations visible from Shanghai. It also includes alarms, alarm systems and chronographs capable of measuring multiple time intervals. To make this crowding legible, different materials, finishes and colors were used. Even chaos, in haute horlogerie, is polished by hand.
The Chinese calendar scheduled until 2200
The most difficult feature to make was the first mechanical Chinese perpetual calendar. Unlike the Gregorian calendar, the traditional Chinese calendar follows an irregular lunisolar cycle: months begin with the new moon, common years can last 353, 354, or 355 days, and those with an additional month last 383, 384, or 385 days. New Year’s Eve also moves every year between January 21st and February 21st.
The caliber gears have been programmed to automatically manage these variations up to 2200. The date, month, year, the sexagenary cycle of Chinese tradition, the zodiac sign and the exact day of New Year appear on the dial. All without software, batteries or updates downloaded overnight: just cogs, levers, springs and an amount of patience that is difficult to measure with the hands.
The previous record already belonged to the same house
The Berkley did not directly oust an old Patek Philippe with 33 complications, as is sometimes said. The immediately previous record already belonged to Vacheron Constantin: it was the Reference 57260, presented in 2015 with 57 complications, two dials and over 2,800 components. It took eight years of research and the work of three watchmakers to build it.
The new model has therefore added six complications to the house record, rearranging them within a completely new mechanism. In the meantime, Vacheron Constantin also created the Solaria, which with 41 complications holds a different record: it is the most complicated wristwatch. The Berkley remains ahead in the overall ranking, aided by dimensions that on the wrist would require more courage than elegance.
The Berkley Grand Complication knows when the Sun will rise, which constellation is visible above Shanghai and which day the Chinese New Year will fall until 2200. How much it cost the owner, however, none of its 31 hands can tell.
