Horological Meandering

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

to know that there are very affordable Annual Cals like the Maurice Lacroix and MIH that are very reliable and quite nice pieces. I am wearing the MIH right now and I find it fantastic. I need only adjust the date once a year. Perpets need never to be adjusted, presumably it is running all the time. Somehow I seriously doubt that collectors let their watches run 24/7/365.

The step up from an annual cal to a full perpetual cal is not a simple step apparently. I will leave that discussion to others who are much more technically knowledgeable to advise how and why they are harder to make.

Cheers
Harry

There was some discussion about the differences between the patek annual (5035 was the one in question) and the similar perpetual(3490).  The question was: Why is the perp about twice as much, if the annual actually has as many, or more(i forget) parts.  The answer was that the parts in the annual are basically all wheels, whereas the perp has levers and springs and such.  Once a wheel is cut(automated) and the plates are drilled and jeweled(automatic), the wheel just goes in the jewel, and works--assuming tolerances are right.  Levers and springs need human tuning to work properly, and humans are way more expensive than wheels.
Aaron

triple date? i suppose it must be as a triple date needs adjusting for 30 day months. i assume an annual doesnt.

i think i've probably answered my own question, but would like confirmation.

yours forever dumb

Graham

In general an annual calendar can handle the difference between 30 and 31 day months automatically but needs intervention to handle February, whether 28 or 29 days.  A basic triple date needs adjustment for any month that isn't 31 days.
-a

Hi

I found out more about the FPJourne annual calendar ( octa calendrier). This needs to be adjusted in 3 out of 4 years for february when the date must be moved from feb 28 to feb 29. After than the date moves from 29 feb  to 1st march automatically. Thus in a leap year the FPJourne annual calendar will move from feb 28 to feb 29 and then directly to march 1.

In all other annual calendars, for all the years the date must be moved manually from feb 28 to 31st or march 1st.

regds

chintu

 

And of course, on an Annual, you can cheat like Breguet.  This movement was made in 1821-1824, but not cased and sold until the 1960s.  It has an Annual calendar around the rim(displaying both month and day with the same indication), moonphase, days of the week and a symmetrical display of mean solar time and sidereal time.  I apologize for the color of the second photograph, and the quality of all, they were taken by hand in a museum, through glass.
first the entire watch, click for a HUGE version

now two close-ups of the date ring of the dial


The watch seems to have no way to handle leap-year.  perhaps you just adjust the hand back to feb 28 on the 29th, and remember it.  I'm also not sure on the method of adjustment.  Now that the museum is more formal, they don't just take the watches out of the cases to show you them
-a