A Guide to Men’s Luxury Watch Complications

Learn about the special features and functions of luxury watches for men.

Men’s luxury watches are works of art created by talented craftsmen. For watch connoisseurs, the decision of which watch to buy doesn’t only depend on how well it tells time – it also depends on how many complications the watch has. A complication is any mechanical function of a watch besides its ability to tell time in hours, minutes, and seconds. The more complications a watch has, the more valuable it is considered to be because watches with multiple complications are challenging to design and create.

In addition to displaying useful information, men’s luxury watch complications also represent ingenuity, innovation, and skill. Battery-operated digital watches have many features, but luxury watch complications are highly valued because they function mechanically without a battery or computer chip with data. Below is a list of men’s luxury watch complications and their functions.

Moon Phase

A moon phase complication is a sub-dial that tracks the current phase of our moon in the lunar cycle, indicating whether it is a new, full, half, or quarter moon. A moon phase complication consists of a rotating disk that shows the illuminated portion of the moon. This complication was invented to aid night travelers who needed the light of the moon to find their way.

Annual Calendar

The annual calendar complication is a complete calendar that displays the day, date, and month. This complication automatically adjusts the date based on 30- and 31-day months to ensure that the correct date is displayed. Users must set the date once per year at the end of February.

Perpetual Calendar

The calendar functions on many watches require constant adjustment in order to display the correct date. A perpetual calendar is a highly intricate mechanism that displays the day, date, month, and year, adjusting automatically for February and leap years without needing to be reset. The next time that a perpetual calendar will need to be adjusted is the year 2100.

Minute Repeater

A minute repeater is a highly coveted watch complication that rings out the time on demand when a slide lever is pressed. A series of chimes sound out the hours, quarter hours, and minutes in separate tones. Minute repeaters existed before electric lighting was invented, so people could determine what time it was in the dark. Minute repeaters are also useful to the visually impaired.

Tourbillion

A tourbillion is a very special complication in men’s luxury watches. It consists of a small rotating cage that houses the escapement of a watch, which is a delicate hairspring mounted on a balance wheel that rotates back and forth. The cage rotates every 60 seconds. A tourbillion compensates for the effects of gravity on the balance, improving a watch’s overall accuracy.

Power Reserve Indicator

Mechanical watches contain only a certain amount of energy to power their functions before they stop. A power reserve indicator lets the watch wearer know how much energy a watch still has in the mainspring and indicates the amount of time that is left before the watch will stop. Fully wound automatic watches typically possess 36 to 42 hours of energy before they need to be wound again.

Dual Time Zone

Dual time zone complications allow wearers to read two different time zones at once. People typically use dual time zone complications to display their home time zone and the time zone in their travel destination.

Chronograph

A chronograph is essentially a stopwatch that measures independent time intervals without affecting the normal time telling function of a watch. Chronographs indicate seconds and sometimes sub-seconds, minutes, and hours on sub-dials. A chronograph is controlled by one or two buttons (a.k.a. pushers) that allow you to start, stop, and reset it. The flyback chronograph is an advanced chronograph that allows you to rapidly restart the timer function while the chronograph is running. When you push the button of a flyback chronograph, the chronograph stops, resets to zero, and restarts.

Find Luxury Men’s Watches for Sale Online

At JZ&F, we offer luxury men’s watches for sale online and have served a prestigious global clientele since 2008. Some of the luxury men’s watch brands we offer include Franc Vila, de Grisogono, Guy Ellia, Harry Winston, Chronoswiss, Romain Jerome, and Pierre Kunz. We have developed close relationships with reputable dealers around the world, which enables us to offer competitive pricing. Our service and collection rival those of some of the best upmarket watch boutiques, but we can pass savings onto you since we don’t have the expensive overhead. Give us a call at 206.455.6557, email us at sales@jzandfstg.wpengine.com, or fill out our online contact form for help finding a luxury men’s watch with the right complications for you.

Featured photo source.