Hang around any watch afficionado (or anyone with a tangential link to the industry) and you’ll be well aware at how complicated constructing a timepiece can be. But when it comes to the newest timepiece unveiled by fabled Swiss watchmaker Vacheron Constantin, ‘complicated’ does not even begin to address how extraordinary the construction of it Solaria Ultra Grand Complication is.
Simply put in the words of the 270-year-old watchmaker, the new timepiece unveiled at Watches & Wonder 2025 is “the most complicated wristwatch ever made”.
As part of the Maison’s exclusive ‘Les Cabinotiers’ segment of timepieces – the Swiss watchmaker’s department dedicated to producing one-of-a-kind models – the new Solaria Ultra Grand Complication is a wristwatch that includes a mind-bending 41 different complications (industry speak that defines the abilities of a watch beyond the normal telling the time). Considering that it is a mere 45mm in diameter, this is a level of watchmaking so advanced that we’d challenge pretty much anyone to even be able to name 41 different complications a watch could display.
To help you out, here are a few of them to simply scratch the surface of how thorough and innovative this timepiece really is.
Along with a Perpetual Calendar, the Solaria Ultra Grand Complication also includes an innovative minute-repeater and five rare astronomical functions, one of which is dedicated to charting the apparent course of the sun across our sky – its rise and set. And if so much about our sky can be told from the flick of the wrist, the watch also debuts a split-seconds chronograph which can be used in conjunction with a star chart. What that means, is that it allows the wearer to calculate when a selected star or constellation will appear in the sky – a world first.
This singular masterpiece effortlessly (well, not if you consider the eight(!) years it took to create) earns its place in the most respected circles of horology – and to the discerning astronomer – it is also a pretty thing to behold with hallmarks of all the luxurious finishings that Vacheron Constantin is renowned for in an 18-carat white gold case.