Watches and Wonders
Perpetual Insanity: The QPs That Took Center Stage at Watches and Wonders 2025
From Parmigiani Fleurier to Frederique Constant, perpetual calendars certainly had a moment at this year’s Watches and Wonders. So, join us as we look at five QPs from the show that represent almost every level of accessibility.
By Rhonda Riche
Editor-At-Large
The perpetual calendar, a.k.a. the quotidian perpetuel, a.k.a. the QP, is a date feature that automatically accounts for leap years, short months, and other unpredictable quirks of the Gregorian calendar.
It is also the kind of watchmaking complication that triggers a specific part of some collectors’ brains. Still, it’s not the most modern complication, as most folks get by just fine with time-only watches.
However, for friends of all things analog, the idea of having the ability to mechanically compute time for years, decades, and even centuries into the future makes it a poetic complication. Watchmakers are equally in love with the present and future possibilities of the perpetual calendar.
Fortunately, at Watches and Wonders Geneva 2025, brands presented many inspired takes on this classic function. Here are five of our favorites representing almost every level of accessibility.
Parmigiani Fleurier Toric Quantième Perpétuel
The most interesting thing about the 2025 class of QPs is the move toward cleaner and more elegant designs. For instance, the 40.6mm Parmigiani Fleurier Toric Quantième Perpétuel integrates two indications per sub-dial in the bottom half of the dial for a more refined result.
Luxurious touches, such as hand-decorated gold bridges and plates, and your choice of a platinum case and Morning Blue dial (CHF 92,000) or a rose gold case and Golden Hour dial (CHF 85,000), with both dials finished with a finely grained texture, offer a nice counterpoint to the restrained display.
Vacheron Constantin Traditionnelle Tourbillon Perpetual Calendar 270th Anniversary
Celebrating 270 years of continuous watchmaking with a range of special edition high-complication timepieces, Vacheron Constantin unveiled the Traditionnelle Tourbillon Perpetual Calendar 270th Anniversary at this year’s Watches and Wonders Geneva.
As the name suggests, this 42mm timepiece combines a complete QP display on the top half of the dial and a tourbillon escapement on the lower half. It’s also a tribute to the Maison’s legendary finishing atelier with its silvery-white dial decorated with a hand-applied guilloché motif.
IWC Ingenieur Perpetual Calendar
The most laid-back entry on our list is IWC’s Ingenieur Perpetual Calendar 41.
For the first time in IWC history, the brand has integrated Gérald Genta’s 1976 Ingenieur design with watchmaker Kurt Klaus’s clever QP module. The result is a 41mm watch that immediately reads as a classic Ingenieur thanks to its grid-like patterning presented on a blue dial, bezel screw slots and sporty integrated bracelet.
The sub-dials subtly emerge from these signatures, which is a lovely way to evolve the look of a perpetual calendar.
Frederique Constant Classic Perpetual Calendar Manufacture
We should have expected it, but the new 40mm Classic Perpetual Calendar Manufacture that Frederique Constant debuted at Palexpo was a delightful surprise.
Of course, we trust the brand to deliver complicated calibres. After all, you need look no further than its Manufacture QP Tourbillon from 2018, which remains a breakthrough piece for the brand. And we know they can deliver beautiful watches, with this new edition, which features a streamlined and elegant case and gorgeous salmon dial with contrasting textures, as the latest proof.
Still, when we learned this piece was priced at just CHF 9,995, we had to rub our eyes in disbelief.
Piaget Polo Perpetual Calendar Obsidian
The renaissance of Piaget’s revived Polo is one of the most engrossing plot lines in the story of modern-day watchmaking, with the brand building out the story using both Polo and non-Polo signatures.
In the case of the new 42mm Polo Perpetual Calendar Obsidian ($129,000), this means incorporating the Maison’s skills in stone setting (with a hauntingly beautiful green obsidian dial) and assembling an ultra-thin mechanism (the white gold case measures in at just 8.65mm in height).
The Manufacture 1255P ultra-thin automatic perpetual calendar movement also includes a blue finished micro-rotor that can be viewed through a transparent caseback. You know, so you can contemplate being in the moment as well as thinking ahead to future leap years.