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The IWC Grande Complication, Chronograph, Minute Repeater, And Perpetual Calendar, Ref. IW9270-45

Jack Forster8 Min ReadNov 30 2022

The IWC Grande Complication was one of the first of a new generation of grande complication and highly complicated watches to emerge from the nearly shattered mechanical watch industry, in the aftermath of the Quartz Crisis. With the introduction of quartz watches and integrated circuit timing packages, it seemed as if hundreds of years of traditional complicated watchmaking had definitely and finally come to an end. After all, why go to the enormous trouble and effort necessary to make something as delicate, costly, and troublesome as a perpetual calendar or split-time chronograph, when you could program such functions into a chip, in a watch costing less than a hundred dollars? However, despite what Dr. George Daniels called “the electricians,” it became clear there was still an audience — and one with deep pockets — for not only mechanical horology, but also highly complex mechanical horology. Thus, some watch brands began to flex their watchmaking muscles.

One of the first shots fired in the post-quartz Grande Complication game was of course Patek Philippe, who produced the enormous, and enormously complex, clock-watch known as the Caliber 89, in 1989. The Caliber 89 was, for 25 years, the most complicated watch in the world, with 33 complications, until it was finally dethroned by Vacheron Constantin’s clock-watch, reference 57260, with 57 complications, in 2015. This was the period which also saw the introduction of Blancpain’s 1735 Grande Complication, in 1991, and Audemars Piguet’s Jules Audemars Grande Complication, in 1996.

While the Caliber 89 was an enormous pocket watch, measuring 88.20mm x 41.07mm, the wristwatch Grande Complication watches had to be much smaller in order to be wearable and the IWC Grande Complication comes in at a very manageable 42.3mm x 16.3mm, albeit it has a total of three complications rather than the 33 in the Caliber 89 (with the caveat that the number of “complications” is often conflated with ordinary watch functions so the number of actual complications in a watch can vary depending on how you choose to count).

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Still, it was a history-making watch when it first appeared at the annual Basel watch and jewelry show in 1990. It was the first self-winding Grande Complication wristwatch and the biggest watch news of the new decade. A Grande Complication, as the name implies, is a highly complex watch and while it may not have the sheer number of complications of pocket watches like the Caliber 89 and the 57260, the three that a Grande Complication does have, are three of the most demanding traditional complications in fine watchmaking.

There’s no universally-accepted definition of a Grande Complication, but it’s generally agreed, at least among those who prefer to adhere to traditional terminology, that a Grande Complication watch should have a timing complication (that is, a chronograph) a chiming complication (repeater) and a calendar complication (perpetual calendar for choice). I suppose if you wanted to you could insist that your chronograph watch with alarm and simple calendar is a “grande complication” but very few people would agree with you (probably exactly nobody). The term is used rather freely these days by some brands for any complicated watch – Patek currently has 39 models under the Grande Complication category on their website, which I don’t think is anything like an attempt to be deceptive, it’s just a way to put their perpetual calendars, tourbillons, astronomical complications, and the like, in one convenient location but if you are really super picky about terminology, a tourbillon watch is not a Grande Complication. (In fact, if you are really super picky about terminology, a tourbillon is not a complication at all, but a regulating device, but that is another story for another time. A tourbillon is not, despite the frequency with which the term is misused, an escapement either but hey, you’re here for A Watch A Week, not Jack’s Pet Peeves).

In any case, the IWC Grande Complication is a true Grande Complication – it deviates from the strictest use of the term only in that it uses a conventional chronograph rather than a rattrapante chronograph, although gains back some points by being self-winding. The watch was designed by IWC’s Hanno Burtscher, who collaborated with his colleague Kurt Klaus in getting the project off the ground, under the leadership of Günter Blümlein. It was an enormous undertaking and a major risk; development of the watch took seven years, from 1983 (when making a complicated mechanical watch of any kind was still a bit of a Quixotic undertaking) to launch in 1990.

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The base movement, believe it or not, is a Valjoux/ETA 7750, probably the single most widely produced of all mechanical chronograph movements and one which has made it possible for millions of watch owners, enthusiasts or otherwise, to enjoy having a chronograph wristwatch. It is definitely not considered an elevated piece of fine watchmaking as it is delivered by ETA (or, these days, various manufacturers who produce clones of the 7750) which raises the question of why, in taking a shot at making something like a Grande Complication watch, the indisputably brilliant Kurt Klaus (nicknamed by veteran enthusiasts, “The Einstein Of Schaffhausen,” in case you doubt his credentials) would have chosen the 7750 as a base.

The answer is of course that the movement is what in the industry is called a tracteur – a tractor, literally; something designed to pull all day without breaking a sweat. It is extremely reliable and lends itself well to upgrades in construction and finishing, and, critically for the Grande Comp project at IWC, produces enough torque to power additional complications without compromising balance amplitude (and therefore, without compromising precision and accuracy).

The perpetual calendar mechanism was designed by Kurt Klaus, completely in-house and it was the first of its kind – it debuted in 1985, in the Da Vinci perpetual calendar. It was the first synchronized perpetual calendar – in other words, the perpetual calendar indications, including the day, date, month, year, moonphase, and the century, could simultaneously be adjusted from the crown; normally you adjust a perpetual calendar by using pushers, set into the case flank. The system has tradition on its side but the pushers compromise water resistance and you need a small tool to press them. It’s easy to accidentally damage a traditional perpetual calendar as well and the Kurt Klaus system was the first of a new generation of easy-to-use perpetual calendar mechanisms. The only downside to the mechanism is that you can only set the calendar forward, so if you do accidentally set the watch to several days ahead of the actual date you have to wait until the watch runs down, and let the date catch up.

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One additional and very unusual feature of the IWC Grande Comp’s perpetual calendar is the year indication, which shows the full year correctly, all four digits, up until 2100 AD (on that date, a watchmaker will need to correct the calendar, as perpetual calendars will otherwise add a day to February as if it were a Leap Year. 2100 is actually not a leap year; every 100 years the Leap Year is omitted, as the Gregorian calendar requires this once per century correction in order to stay aligned properly with the seasons). The IWC Grande Comp includes a minute slide for the century indication, which, once installed, will show the correct year right up to 2499 AD.

The repeater mechanism was designed by Renaud & Papi (founded in 1986 by Giulio Papi and Dominique Renaud — now Audemars Piguet Renaud & Papi), which at the time the watch debuted was only four years old. It is a classic repeater mechanism, actuated by a slide on the left hand side of the case. The repeater chimes on two gongs (tuned to B-Flat for the hour gong and E-flat for the minute gong, according to IWC) and IWC registered 12 patents overall for the watch, case, and bracelet.

In various versions, the IWC Grande Complication was produced over a twenty year period, from 1990 to 2010, when it was replaced by the Portuguieser Grande Complication; the version we’ve got for you this week was completed in 2008. (It reigned as IWC’s most complicated watch for a relatively short time – “Il Destriero Scafusia,” also based on a Valjoux 7750 caliber, had a repeater, split seconds chronograph, perpetual calendar, and tourbillon and debuted in 1993).

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It comes on an extremely beautiful matching gold bracelet and for all its undeniable mass, it is a very elegant watch on the wrist (thanks to the thoughtfulness of its design and execution). The bracelet is worth a separate mention – each of the links is highly polished and faceted and it’s as supple and comfortable a solid gold bracelet as you could wish.

The IWC Grande Complication is like many of the watches I love featuring on A Watch A Week, an example of the fact that the life of a watch does not end when it’s first sold. It can take some time for a watch to be appreciated in the context in which it was created, of course, but that is part of the joy in understanding a piece like this. It’s a living, breathing, working piece of watchmaking history, designed to remind anyone who discovers it, of a moment in watchmaking history when complicated horology arose from the dead, for hundreds of years to come.

To further appreciate the beauty of the IWC Grande Complication, check out Tim Mosso’s The 1916 Company video review, right here