Perpetual Calendar Standard

Among the three major technologies in high-end watches, a function called a perpetual calendar would be shared in today’s blog. To put it simply, the date display of a general watch will run in a cycle of Date 1- Date 31, it needs manual adjustment for the end of a “small month” (e.g. Feb, Apr, etc). For more complicated annual calendars, it automatically jumps to the appropriate date at the end of the month according to the number of date of the month (including February).  However, the perpetual calendar is one more step, which can provide the correct February date display for the leap year every four years.  

Let’s have a look on the below 3 perpetual calendar watches, see how amazing they are:

Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Ultra Thin Perpetual

Among the perpetual calendar watches in the market, only a few have a year display function, and this one of Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Ultra Thin Perpetual not only has this function to display, but also a built-in Jaeger-LeCoultre movement 868/1, which has an ultra-thin structure. The movement is only 4.72mm thick, which greatly improves the wearability of the watch.

Glashütte Original Senator Excellence Perpetual Calendar

Since the perpetual calendar watch requires a lot of information to be displayed, so the design of the watch would be more complicated. How to make the surface display with such many functions but keep it simple, indeed it would become a big challenge. Glashütte Original Senator Excellence Perpetual Calendar, look at the shape, you can understand why I chose it as one of the introduction in this blog. The Caliber 36's their own movement used in it has a power reserve of up to 100 hours.

Frederique Constant Manufacture Perpetual Calendar

Certain technology is required to make a perpetual calendar, so ordinary brands normally just buy a movement from a major manufacturer. The perpetual calendar in this Frederique Constant has attracted my attention, the biggest reason is that this watch not only uses their self made movement, but also the price is reasonable. However, this series are all sold out at this moment, and when they will be released again is unknown.

It sounds like there aren't many more functions in perpetual calendar watch, but this subtlety is enough to make earth-shaking changes in the mechanical structure.