Swiss

A perpetual calendar or the quantième perpétuel in French, is a complicated mechanism for timekeeping instruments which displays the correct date of the Gregorian calendar without any external control intervention hence the name ‘perpetual’. It takes account of all the short and long months, of years without February 29, and of the leap years, which is facilitated by the ‘program wheels’ in the movement. On the contrary, an annual calendar adjusts to short and long months but doesn’t take leap years into account, and it has a simpler calendar which assumes that all months have 31 days. Additionally, some timepieces with perpetual calendars will also include a moon phase complication and a leap year indication. 

The first perpetual calendar complication housed in a portable timepiece was created in 1762 by English watchmaker Thomas Mudge, who is most famous for inventing the lever escapement. Following Mudge’s breakthrough, storied watchmakers such as Patek Philippe and Jules Louis Audemars continued to contribute to the Perpetual Calendar’s evolution. A technological marvel, timepieces containing Perpetual Calendars were often reserved for the collections of the nobility or bourgeoisie of the 18th and 19th centuries. 

The present timepiece, cased in white gold, is one such creation from the early 20th century that houses not one, but two of the noblest watch complications, the perpetual calendar and the minute repeater. Invented during a time period before widespread and reliable artificial illumination, minute repeaters allowed the time to be determined in the dark and by the visually impaired by striking the hours, quarters, and minutes on demand by means of a slide. 

We are pleased to offer the present timepiece, in exceptional condition, housing two important complications along with moon phases and with applied Breguet numerals.