Horological Meandering

chintu
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Annual Calendars

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

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