Swiss company Vacheron Constantin have spent nearly a decade designing and engineering a fabulous timepiece for a secret buyer, quickly becoming the world’s most complicated pocket watch.
The pocket watch features more than 2,800 tiny mechanical parts, of which have all been individually hand-decorated and engineered by three master watchmakers, using traditional watch making techniques, taking eight years to complete.
As well as being able to display the time the watch, named the Reference 57260, can also perform fifty-seven record-breaking functions such as predicting the sunset and sunrise, showing the length of a day and a night, indicating the different phases of the moon, sounding different chimes and alarms and also providing a sky chart for local constellations.
The watches complications are brought together by an intricate production containing layers upon layers of gears and springs, all working together in unison, allowing the watch to function. To complete this unique masterpiece, engraved on the inside of the watch is a stunning quote, written in French from co-founder Francois Constantin that translates as “Do better if possible, which is always possible.”
With the watch containing fifty-seven complications in total, this record-breaking device is set to be estimated at an extraordinarily high price. However, as a one-off piece for a private collector, the actual price of the watch is yet to be disclosed, but we imagine it will be more than the average human could afford in a lifetime.
Check out the incredible creation here.
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