The great creators of complications in Swiss horology

Watchmaking complications often spring from practical needs. Traditionally, watchmakers racked their brains to find a credible solution that would suit such a small space as the one provided first by pocket watches and then by wristwatches. Not satisfied with just finding solutions to display the usual hours, minutes and seconds, they would add new gears to basic mechanisms until they managed to create new functions. First came the indication of the date and the day of the week which are already complications in themselves. The challenge then evolved into designing a mechanism that would jump from the 30^th to the 1^st without passing through the 31^st and once a year, in February, from the 28^th to the 1^st.

Jean-Claude Nicolet

We find annual calendars, a bit less complicated than perpetual calendars which indicate the 29th of February on leap years once every four years. And so on and so forth…

In the same way that moon phases enabled us to forecast the most favorable periods for plowing, the minute-repeater watch allowed us to hear the time at night when finding a light to check our watch was a complicated and risky affair. The tourbillon invented by Abraham Louis-Breguet aimed to compensate a certain decrease in precision brought about by the different positions pocket watches adopted during the day. Breguet thought that, by placing the watch’s regulating organ in a frame that rotated usually in one minute, he would be able to defy the laws of gravity. Furthermore, this operation required such exceptional skill that many contemporary watchmakers tried their hand at it. The list includes George Daniels – who passed away last year – François-Paul Journe, Jean-Claude Nicolet, Robert Greubel and Stephen Forsey, Christophe Claret, etc.

Saskia Maaike Bouvier

Micromechanical poetry

In an era when skimming a touchscreen allows us to retrieve complete information on watchmaking, complications have bartered – thanks to the resurrection of mechanical horology– their obsolete state for a whole culture which celebrates traditional know-how and innovating touches.

Ludovic Ballouard

Contemporary watchmakers, guardians of this legacy, have dared to perform their personal interpretations of or even to write their own partitions for classic aesthetics. In this sense, we could state that they functional designers. Take the flyback hand which, on arriving at it destination, jumps instantly back to its starting point thus creating on the dial a whole new space for all kinds of poetry. Jean-Marc Wiederrecht is the master of this mechanism as he obtained the 666.591 patent for it in 1986. His first creation was the Bi-Retrograde Perpetual Calendar for Harry Winston but he also signed other icons such as “Le Pont des Amoureux” (The Lovers’ Bridge) for Van Cleef & Arpels and, recently “Le Temps Suspendu” (Frozen Time) for Hermès. The latter allows the owner to stop time at their will when they want to enjoy a timeless moment. The watch’s hands move away from their positions as if they had gone crazy and only regain their place when reality imposes itself.

Van Cleef & Arpels Pont des Amoureux

This might seem simple when put like this,but this notion of mechanical memory is tantamount to mechanical genius.

Movement producers

Experienced watchmakers are to horology what Pininfarina is to cars. Sometimes they are spotted by some high-end brand. That was the case of several figures: Carole Forestier-Kasapi at Cartier, Grégory Bruttin at Roger Dubuis, Denis Flageollet at De Bethune, Pierre Gygax at Ulysse Nardin, Mathias Buttet at Hublot. Also, Michel Navas and Barbasini Enrico (recently annexed to Louis Vuitton), Kilian Eisenegger at MHVJ or Cédric Grandperret, founder of Magma Concept (bought by Union Horlogère). Some other times these watchmakers decide to create their own company to better serve the brands. Examples include: David Candaux (DCHC), Christophe Claret and Nicolas Commergnat (GMTI), Jean-François Mojon (Chronode), Fabien Lamarche (IMH), Pierre-Laurent Favre (MHC), Ohilippe Ruedin (ASPX-Engineering) or Andreas Strehler (Urh Teil AG). Others create eponymous brands: Daniel Roth, François-Paul Journe, Philippe Dufour, Sven Andersen, Antoine Preziuso, Thomas Prescher, Peter Speake-Marin, Laurent Ferrier, Ludovic Ballouard, Vianney Halter, Daniel Nebel (Nord Zeitmaschine) or Saskia Maaike-Bouvier …

Jean-Marc Wiederrecht

Others become freelancers, like some enlightened scholars such as Ludwig Oechslin who, in his capacity of curator at the Musée International d’Horlogerie de La Chaux-de-Fonds (MIH), partook both in researching complicated mechanisms at Ulysse Nardin and in the newly created Ochs und Junior.

George Daniels