You have to imagine the degree of obstinacy or even obsession that devoting oneself for years to the design of a complex watch, then to its assembly, represents. This is the role of the trio of exceptional watchmakers of Cabinotiers, the department of the Vacheron Constantin manufacture exclusively dedicated to the creation of unique pieces. The one unveiled this year as part of the Geneva Watches & Wonders show, the world's great watchmaking gathering, is precisely one of these special orders. A unique piece custom-ordered by a client, who exceptionally agreed that it bear his name: the Berkley. This great collector of watches for four decades is already the owner of the one which was at its time, in 2015, unanimously considered to be the most complicated watch ever made. Reference 57260. This is how the next one was born: by challenging watchmakers to make things even more complicated, to the borders of the impossible.
The Berkley Grande Complication from Vacheron Constantin. Vacheron Constantin
The development of this imposing watch (98 x 50.5 mm) therefore lasted eight years, with multiple interactions with Michael Berkley. His new challenge to bring this new watch to life, the fruit of this 15-year relationship between him and three master watchmakers from the Cabinotiers workshop: imagine a watch with multiple complications, but integrating a traditional Chinese calendar with perpetual conversion. “No other house would have been able to take on such a Herculean challenge,” says Michael Berkley. “The Chinese calendar was revised for the last time in 1645,” explains Christian Selmoni, director of heritage at the factory. Its particularity is that it is not an exclusively solar or lunar calendar, but a combination of the two. The reconciliation of astronomical information linked to these two calendars meant that numerous irregularities made the creation of a perpetual Chinese calendar impossible. »
The Berkley Grande Complication from Vacheron Constantin. Vacheron Constantin
Indeed, this lunosolar calendar contains twelve lunar months of 29 or 30 days and an additional lunar month every two or three years. All this is also organized around a 19-year cycle, called the metonic cycle, in which the position of the moon in relation to the earth or the sun will become identical after 235 lunations. This 19-year calendar makes it possible to reconcile lunar and solar data. Added to this are the particularities of Chinese cosmogony: ten celestial branches, Yin or Yang polarities, twelve terrestrial branches, the animals of the Chinese zodiac in their historical order. All this without forgetting a detail that is not one: some years last 364 days, others 355, 383, or 384, and all this in disorder.
The Berkley Grande Complication from Vacheron Constantin. Alex Teuscher
How can we imagine a perpetual calendar capable of integrating all of this? “Our three master watchmakers had to think completely outside of traditional watchmaking thinking, indicating cycles through cogs, levers, cams... They integrated three kinds of mechanical calculators, making it possible to predict and indicate irregularities on the basis of observatory calculations. Such as the Institute of Celestial Mechanics, in Paris, which publishes projections of the Chinese calendar, based on the movements of the planets and lunations. The three watchmakers were thus able to mechanically program these watches, so that this watch is accurate despite the irregularities until 2199. In their mechanism, our watchmakers have also integrated the indication of the Chinese New Year from the year 2021 for a 19-year cycle. »And once this cycle is completed? All you have to do is change the disc, the watch being supplied with eight additional discs. Enough to practically reach the year 2200… “There is no adjustment to be made in terms of movement. It's simply a matter of removing the disk and replacing it with the next one. This is what allows this Chinese calendar to be perpetual, which is a first”
The Berkley Grande Complication from Vacheron Constantin. Vacheron Constantin
In total, this indescribably complex watch offers 63 complications, thanks to a new caliber made up of 2877 components. “Its final assembly took one of our three watchmakers a full year of work. » Especially since it incorporates another unique feature, in addition to the Chinese agricultural calendar, 9 astronomical complications, a chronograph with 4 complications, and a perpetual Gregorian calendar programmed until 2100: its striking part , offers a unique silent position from 10 p.m. to 8 a.m. in addition to a large and small ringtone. On the back of this unique piece, the regulator-type hour, minutes and seconds display is in line, with hours at the top, minutes in the center and retrograde seconds at the bottom. An exclusive compensation system allows the needle to return to zero at lightning speed. Clearly, whatever it does, this Berkley Grande Complication does it to perfection.
The Berkley Grande Complication from Vacheron Constantin. Alex Teuscher