Annual Calendar - The New Star?
June 2nd 2009
By establishing the various lengths of the twelve calendar months and by adding one day to the month of February every four years, Julius Caesar certainly did not make things easy for watchmaking. But he was in fact tackling an almost insoluble problem. The exact duration of the year - approximately 365.2422 days - makes it impossible to divide it into whole number of days, hence the obligation to juggle with months of 28, 29, 30 and 31 days. The simple calendars equipping most watches ignore these subtle complexities, since they are programmed for 31 days a month, period. They therefore have to be manually adjusted five times a year at the end of February, April June, September and November. The famous perpetual calendar models take into account not only months of 30 and 31 days, but also the length of February. They are thus theoretically programmed for eternity - even though the technical feat is constrained by the fact that 2100 is an exceptional non leap-year, which means a correction will need to be made at that point.
A 366-day memory
Mid-way between the two systems, annual calendars mechanically programmed for one full year. They recognise the variable lengths of 30- and 31-day months, but not that of February. They must therefore be manually adjusted once a year, on March 1st. The supplier Dubois Depraz was among the first producers to offer this mechanism in the 1980s. In 1996, Patek Philippe enhanced its visibility by presenting its patented "Annual Calendar", which has since been interpreted through various models and displays, becoming one of the best-sellers from the Geneva-based manufacturer.
A steadily growing wave
Recent years have witnessed a growing number of different annual calendar models, which is doubtless not unrelated to the expiration of the Patek Philippe patent in 2006. Several brands have launched models featuring original designs and often combining the annual calendar with other functions. Noteworthy examples include the Instrumento Novantatre by de Grisogono, the Automatic Annual Calendar Chronograph Calibre FVA12-91 by Franc Vila, and the Dressage Annual Calendar by Hermes driven by the exclusive Vaucher Manufacture Fleurier movement. The Pierre DeRoche brand, founded by the brother of the Dubois Depraz directors, has introduced a model named GrandCliff Annual Calendar and equipped with a flyback chronograph. At the start of 2008, Omega celebrated its 160th anniversary by launching a limited series of the De Ville Hour Vision with annual calendar. At the end of the same year, Girard-Perregaux offered a pair of models endowed with this function: the men's 1966 Annual Calendar "Equation of Time", as well as the Cat's Eye Annual and Zodiac Calendars for ladies. All of which tends to indicate that the annual calendar might well be on its way to becoming one of the new stars of contemporary watchmaking - even though its fairly complex construction (there are more than 300 parts in a Patek Philippe annual calendar) means it is not likely to appear in easily affordable watches just yet…
See the gallery of annual calendars
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