February is that one occasion in the year when perpetual calendar owners get to show off where all that extra cash went.
While possessors of all other date and calendar watches, even annual calendars, are poking recessed buttons or fiddling with crown positions, the wearer of a perpetual calendar could host an end-of-month midnight salon to allow friends to witness the effortless mechanical transition between February and March.
(Admittedly, he would first need to find friends to invite to said soiree.)
Complex and cleverly programmed the perpetual may be, but their dials have to offer up a vast array of information which can make legibility a challenge.
How do five of the latest releases manage this task?
Perpetual calendar watches
Bovet 1822 Virtuoso VII Retrograde Perpetual Calendar
While some watch manufacturers aim for simplicity on their dials to allow rapid and accurate assimilation of information, Bovet takes a different approach. The Virtuoso VII is such a visual treat that you cannot help but be drawn into it, making the reading of the time and date an indulgent experience. Indeed, there is a danger you could be so distracted by all this marvellous detail that you forget why you looked at it in the first place.
Bovet 1822 Virtuoso VII Retrograde Perpetual Calendar
Hours and minutes are displayed in a classical style against a lacquered dial while the calendar appears with surprising clarity on transparent discs, suspended above the exposed movement. If all that information becomes overwhelming, flip the watch over to the second face which gives just hours, minutes, seconds and power reserve.
Glashütte Original Senator Excellence Perpetual Calendar
Saxon watches always seem to handle their dial space so well and this GO perpetual calendar is no different. At 42mm there is a lot of real estate to work with and the pared-back nature of the dial features enhances this. The hands are slender blued steel and the hour markers, other than the 12 and six are slim black batons...
Glashütte Original Senator Excellence Perpetual Calendar
The month, day and date windows are more spread out than the Patek Philippe which, in tandem with a panorama date display is appreciated by ageing eyes. Also welcome is the fact that all this elegance sits on top of the new high-beat movement with 100-hour power reserve and can be purchased wrapped in a stainless-steel case making it all the more affordable.
Chopard L.U.C Lunar One Platinum Ltd Edition
First introduced in 2005, the Lunar One is not a new watch for Chopard, but 2017 saw 100 of them receive a new platinum jacket and stunning blue face. Although larger than the Glashütte Original at 43mm, this dial appears jammed full of detail featuring three subdials, with all of them performing double duty, along with a double aperture date below 12 o’clock...
Chopard L.U.C Lunar One Platinum Ltd Edition
The subdials are large, aiding legibility, but this is at the expense of the hour markers which are squeezed almost out of existence. The lack of a six can be forgiven as it is replaced with not just a simple moon phase indicator but an astronomical one that shows the position of the moon in the sky alongside actual constellations.
IWC Aquatimer Perpetual Calendar Digital Date-Month Edition ‘50 Years Aquatimer’
To celebrate 50 years of the Aquatimer, IWC hasn’t gone back to the source, re-interpreting a 1960s classic; instead it is referencing an early 1980s model, the Porsche Design Ocean 2000, that looks as startlingly modern today as it did at launch. The Ocean 2000 was the first all-titanium wristwatch and the anniversary model also utilises an innovative case material – Ceratanium, a combination of titanium and ceramic...
IWC Aquatimer Perpetual Calendar Digital Date-Month Edition ‘50 Years Aquatimer’
The case diameter is a hulking 49mm but unlike the other watches on the list, the IWC must fit the calendar within a ‘Safedive’ bezel with elapsed time indicator so it was never going to be small. Continuing the modern theme, both the date and month displays are digital and as a moon phase indicator might seem anachronistic at 12 we have a chronograph totaliser.
Patek Philippe Perpetual Calendar Ref. 5320.
Patek Philippe has followed the controversial, but successful, vintage-inspired Calatrava Pilot Travel Time with another gem. It is notable that this watch follows a traditional layout, sports a pair of ‘syringe’ hands usually found on watches from the 1930s and 1940s and yet feels very modern...
Patek Philippe Perpetual Calendar Ref. 5320.
Perhaps it is the lack of faux-aged lume that keeps it up-to-date and while the dial’s cream tone may hint at age, it also serves as a perfect backdrop for the bright-white Superluminova hands and numerals. The classic perpetual layout in front of the tried and tested calibre 324 has served Patek well for decades and taking the case size up to 40mm allows a little more space to add in a day/night indicator and leap-year counter.
