Triple Calendar

Parmigiani Fleurier consolidates three calendar complications into three, three-watch collector's boxes

- DANIEL GOH

As far as complications go, the calendar, be it a perpetual, annual or complete (triple) calendar, sits near the pinnacle of watchmaking. To work on this complication (or complications because they are not equal), the watchmaker needs a deep understanding of mathematical calculation, of recognising algorithms and subsequently, the capability to imagine a system of translating these numerical formulas into mechanical form. The counting of seconds, minutes and hours is easy enough because 60 seconds translates into a minute and 60 minutes into an hour, so there is a clear, repeatable pattern for the mechanical structure.

With a calendar, the movement now has to “remember” that yes 60 minutes is an hour but 24 hours represents a day, and 30, 31, 28 or 29 days represents a month. It might also need to recognise specific patterns to the months of a year, and to the pattern of years because there is an extra day in February during a leap year. All this is even more astounding when you imagine that the “memory” of a mechanical movement consists of only a cleverly designed system of wheels, cams, levers and arms.

The Gregorian calendar has long been the international standard for global synchronicity, but before it came into effect in 1582, different civilisations had their own way of understanding the passage of time. Where the Gregorian calendar was based on the earth’s movement around the sun, the traditional Chinese calendar was created based on the lunar and solar cycles and the Islamic, Hijri calendar is based solely on lunar cycles. Separated by time, geography and culture, each of these civilisations looked to the same skies and came to their own conclusions about how best to track the passage of the seasons.