The 1916 Company luxury watches for sale

The Inbox: Aren’t Hand Wound Perpetual Calendars Obsolete?

If hand-wound perpetuals are such a bad idea, why do they even exist?

Jack Forster5 Min ReadDec 6 2023

Greetings all, and welcome back to The Inbox. We’ve been on a little bit of a hiatus since our last incarnation as the The 1916 Company Inbox (where we tackled questions ranging from why you really should service your watches, to whether or not there’s such a thing as too many Rolex, to whether or not it’s possible to even innovate in watchmaking anymore). Recently, a reader wrote in, asking this:

“Why would a watchmaker make a perpetual calendar that isn’t automatic wind? If you put it down for a few days and forget to manually wind the watch, you’ll be spending your time setting the date functions, which defeats the purpose of the amazing feat of having a watch that doesn’t need a date correction for nearly a century. That’s one step forward, one step sideways, and two steps back for anyone not winding it every other day (which itself fights the idea that a perpetual calendar offers ease of use). I know, I know. The movement is going to be fatter with a rotor and covered under the rotor. Still though. Come on.”

Zoom InHand-Wound Moser Endeavour Perpetual Calendar

This question was obviously asked with a certain level of feeling but it is I think a reasonable one. A self winding perpetual calendar at least at first glance would seem to make a good deal more sense, since it is less likely to stop thanks to running down its power reserve, and moreover it can be kept on a winder when you’re not using it so that you don’t have to go to the trouble of re-setting the calendar if you haven’t worn it for a while.

Zoom InThe Hand-Wound A. Lange & Söhne Richard Lange Terra Luna

However, there are several reasons why hand-wound perpetual calendars continue to be made. First of all, they can be found in the collections of many high end watchmakers – Patek’s ref. 5270, Lange’s Datograph Perpetual, and Moser’s Endeavour Perpetual Calendar are all hand-wound. As the question points out, as a general rule an automatic watch with a perpetual calendar will all other things being equal, tend to be thicker although this is certainly not necessarily the case. Both Vacheron Constantin and Audemars Piguet make ultra-thin self-winding perpetual calendars (both based on the same ultra-thin movement, the VC 1120/AP2120) and Patek’s caliber 240 Q allows the company to make the 39mm x 9.71mm ref. 5327, while the hand-wound Richard Lange Terraluna is 45.5mm x 16.5mm, so clearly, whether or not a perpetual is hand-wound or automatic is not by itself a decisive factor in the thickness of a watch.

Zoom InAudemars Piguet Royal Oak Perpetual CalendarAudemars Piguet Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar

Zoom In

The objection that a perpetual will have to be reset if left unused for any length of time is a valid one, although the degree to which this represents a real problem, depends on the watch and how long it has been left unwound. A traditional perpetual calendar has correctors which, while somewhat fiddly to use, do allow the owner to set the watch up if necessary and some perpetuals, like the Kurt Klaus-designed coordinated perpetual calendar from IWC, allow the owner to set all indications from the crown. The latter design, however, can be a challenge if the watch has been idle for a longer period of time. I can still remember getting an IWC Da Vinci Perpetual which hadn’t run for over a year, and the considerable trouble it was to turn the crown repeatedly until the calendar was updated). You actually can buy watch winders for hand-wound watches although they are harder to find and more expensive than standard winders for automatic watches.

Automatic winders are a relatively recent development, although technically, they have been around since the late 18th century, as Breguet’s “Sympathique” clocks were capable of winding the watches docked to them.

Zoom InPatek’s first automatic perpetual calendar ref. 3448

I suspect that the main reason for making a perpetual calendar hand wound nowadays, is aesthetic. Patek Philippe could certainly make all of its perpetuals automatic if it wanted to – its first automatic perpetual calendar, the ref. 3448, came out in 1962 (and was famously worn by Andy Warhol, whose 3448 recently sold at Sotheby’s for CHF 293,000) – but its even longer tradition of making hand-wound perpetual calendar chronographs offers an aesthetic experience you can’t get from an automatic.

Zoom InPatek Philippe ref. 5270

Zoom In

I don’t think the view through the caseback of, say, the ref. 5270, would be improved by a rotor and in any case, adding an automatic winding system to this caliber would in fact, make for a physically ungainly watch as well. Between tradition, aesthetics, and the fact that not every hand-wound movement which supports the perpetual calendar complication can or should be converted to an automatic winding system, I think there is a strong argument for the appeal of hand-wound perpetuals as well.