Closer Look: Four Top Watches That Need A Second Glance

With so many great watches being unveiled this year, it is difficult to keep up. Sometimes, though, a few stand out. Here we take share four complicated watches that warrant a second, or even third, look.

A Lange & Sohne Datograph Up/Down

German watch brand A. Lange & Sohne’s newest Datograph Up/Down flyback chronograph watch is crafted in 18-karat white gold with a deep blue dial and silvered subsidiary dials. First unveiled to the world in 1999, the Datograph line of timepieces measures short-time intervals and boasts a flyback mechanism that enables the counter to fly back to the beginning to start timing anew without the need for pressing extra pushers for stop and reset to zero. The watch also boasts a precisely jumping minute counter and outsized date.The watch is powered by the brand’s 451-part manually wound caliber L951.6. Just 125 pieces will be made. Price on request.

IWC Portugieser Eternal Calendar

A world’s first and incredibly complex to build, the newest platinum IWC Portugieser Eternal Calendar goes where no man has gone before: to include a moonphase accurate for 45 million years. This astronomical feat was years in the making and boasts a 400-year gear system that enables the perpetual calendar to account for months with varying lengths (like most perpetual calendars) but then also to account for leap years and skipped leap years (skipped in order for the solar calendar to sync with the Gregorian calendar) for centuries to come.  As mentioned, the Double Moon indication displays accuracy for millions of years.  Price on request.

Ulysse Nardin Freak S Nomad

The Ulysse Nardin Freak has always been, well, a freak of watchmaking nature. Now, easily the most technically advanced Freak watch to date (the collection was first launched in 2001), the new Freak S Nomad is a three-dimensional work of art and technology. In the center of the dial-less watch is a space-ship-like apparatus comprised of the 373-part watch movement with two oscillators with silicon balance wheels and a flying “carousel” (a device similar to a tourbillon and used to counter gravity forces and improve accuracy). Crafted in high-tech titanium and carbon fiber, the 45mm watch is equipped with the brand’s proprietary patented Grinder automatic winding system. It boasts a sand-colored mainplate indicative of the desert and acting as a nod to a nomadic lifestyle. Just 99 pieces will be made.  $148,300.

Carl F. Bucherer Manero Tourbillon Double Peripheral

Independent brand Carl F. Bucherer is long known for its work with peripheral movements – wherein the power for the watch stems from a peripheral rotor versus a conventional oscillating weight. Now, the brand turns its attentions to a peripherally wound tourbillon. The new Manero Peripheral Tourbillon timepieces are not only technologically advanced, but also aesthetically complex. In fact, they boast a patented double peripheral automatic winding system. Additionally, the textured and gradient-patterned dial is created using an innovative laser technology that creates diamond-shaped peaks with valleys between them where the rich color of the lacquer collects to form a deeper contrast to the brighter, lighter peaks. Each watch features a gem set bezel. $158,500.

 

(Portions of this article by Roberta Naas first appeared in DuPont Registry.)