Perpetual Motion

Of all the horological complications ever created, the perpetual calendar counts among the most celebrated and useful. This is largely due to decades of dedication and craftsmanship from pioneering Swiss watchmaker Patek Philippe.

- Dietrich Neu

ASK ANY SERIOUS watch collector and they’ll tell you the true beauty of a fine timepiece lies beyond what the eyes can see – it’s the mechanical movement inside. The world’s elite watches boast some of the most complicated micro mechanics ever built by human hands. They are beautiful instruments constructed to resolve problems of time. It started with simple hours, minutes and seconds, but as history moved forward, and the genius watchmakers of our age continued to innovate, timepieces began to track dates, years and the rotation of the planets around the sun – all by the revolution of the tiny gears inside.

Of all the mechanical complications created to help people track time, there are few more complicated, useful and beautiful than the perpetual calendar. Unlike an annual calendar, which needs yearly adjustment for the obscurities of the Gregorian calendar we use today (leap year cycles, differing lengths between months, etc), perpetual calendars only require an adjustment once every hundred years – making these watches some of the most practical and technically impressive in horological history.