Hi,
The Annual Calendar is a delightful complication. But there are very few watchmakers that provide this ; and some that did, have discontinued.
Patek has perhaps the most visible and successful line of Annual calendars.
Audemars Piguet had the Royal Oak - Quantieme Annuel No:25920 ( month and date) being the last version and which was discontinued in 2003 ( not sure).
Ulysse Nardin with the annual chronograph ( uses ETA modified by Dubois Depraz) is the other one that comes to my mind. I am not sure if it was or is popular given the fact that it did not use an inhouse movement .
FPJourne Octa Calendrier is an annual calendar with day,date and month and the key difference being that it recognizes Feb 28 also. Could perhaps be called a Semi-perpetual annual calendar?
Breitling does seem to have a semi perpetual ( based on their KELEK one).
I wonder why Lange, Jaeger, Glashutte, IWC,Vacheron or AP (after 2003) have not come up with any annual calendars. I donot see any coming up in SIHH 2008/ BASEL . Is it because that an annual calendar takes nearly the same effort to produce a perpetual . If so, the watchmakers could be justified in producing a perpetual , thereby getting a much better price than an annual calendar (which cannot carry the same pricing in any case.)
CHINTU
added to Editor's Pick
This message has been edited by AnthonyTsai on 2008-01-26 09:29:27© 2017 - WatchProZine