This issue focuses on ‘Movement’. And while this theme is open to interpretation — dance, growth, emotions — it fits the subject of watches like a perfectly assembled, well, movement.

Besides the look and feel of a watch, a watch’s beauty also relies on its beating heart. In fact, it makes up half the decision when buying a new timepiece. While you can only arrange a bunch of springs and gears in so many ways to keep track of time, the ingenuity of the human race has seen some rather interesting contraptions.

Clock in, because we are going to explore what makes a watch tick, from the historically significant to those one-of-a-kind pieces that make you gasp in awe.

So Complicated

If we are going to talk about springs and gears, why not start with one of the most complicated arrangements to date? Enter the Vacheron Constantin Solaria Ultra Grand Complication.

The primary function of a watch is to tell time. But it would be useful if it could also track the date, or a different timezone. or the lunar cycle. Hence the various complications that speak of the ingenuity of engineering in the realm of watchmaking.

But this watch, through the Calibre 3655 movement, features complications that border on the territory of extravagant. Here is a number to kick things off: 41. The Solaria Ultra Grand Complication, hailing as the world’s most complicated wristwatch at the moment, features 41 complications. It takes 1,521 components to complete the build (an average timepiece only has about 300 parts), with eight long years of development marking its journey from idea to reality.

Because of this, users will be able to measure elements beyond time. Step aside, dual timezone. Now it is even possible to keep track of celestial bodies. And through the combination of a split-seconds chronograph and sky chart, this watch will even tell users when a certain star or constellation will appear in the sky — a world’s first.

Of course, there are accessible features as well, such as a moon phase, perpetual calendar, and world time. And this amount of complications fills both sides of the watch. Yes, we are bordering on the design and the art of miniaturisation, but all this beauty comes from a well-designed movement in the first place.

Do human beings need complications of this nature? No. But should we still push the envelope? Yes. Because while these mechanical creations may seem rigid and absolute, they still qualify as works of art. And when it comes to art, why should we put a limit on ourselves?

Being The First

The Zenith El Primero movement, conceived in 1969, has made it through the decades and is still used in today’s timepieces. But this movement has achieved renown not just through its technical prowess, but also through its amazing lore.

The reason for this movement’s initial prestige was due to it being the first chronograph with self-winding capabilities. And this was during a time when other major watchmakers were also pursuing the same goal. Yes, the chronograph and the automatic movement have existed separately centuries prior, but there was never one to combine both until the El Primero emerged.

This movement ran on a frequency of 5Hz. Simply put, the El Primero kept time by beating 36,000 times per hour. Quite impressive, seeing how most watches of today still operate at 21,600 beats per hour. A higher frequency typically means better accuracy and better resistance against external factors like bumps and vibrations, which is why it is a prized feature here.

Plus, having a high frequency for a chronograph meant that users could measure time up to one-tenth of a second. Picture someone standing at the finish line of a foot- or car-race, particularly in the late 1960s, and the benefits of a high-frequency movement become apparent.

The El Primero is Spanish for ‘the first’, an apt name seeing how it won the race among other watchmakers. But it also had to continue fighting for its life after its inception, thanks to another notable event in horological history — the introduction of quartz movements. In fact, this very development of quartz would be integral to El Primero’s history.

That was because the management of the time decided to cull the production of mechanical watches in lieu of quartz watches. It was a plan that included the disposal of El Primero machinery, parts and blueprints. Thankfully, an engineer named Charles Vermot would preserve these items in the factory attic, allowing the movement to be reproduced when the time was ripe, decades later.

This movement has since evolved into the El Primero 3600, its most optimised version to date, while the previous iterations are still used in Zenith’s timepieces today. The reason why this movement makes the list is because most watch movements have us looking at the possibilities of tomorrow, but the Zenith El Primero has us appreciating the past.

A Game Of Millimetres

You cannot mention the Bvlgari Octo Finissimo without associating the word ‘thinness’ with it. That is because through its many forms — chronograph, perpetual calendar, tourbillon — this collection of watches has won the title of thinnest timepieces in their respective categories for many years counting.

And the only way this was possible was through the slenderness of the movements. What is more impressive is the fact that complications generally add instead of reduce thickness. Despite this, the Octo Finissimo collection has seen watches that could be as thin as 1.7mm. These dimensions are so extreme that they should be considered a complication in and of itself.

Never mind the fact that the rest of the watch — such as the glass, bracelet, and case — would require lots of redesigning to follow suit. Just coming up with a way to stack gears together will be enough to keep the untrained person befuddled for decades.

So Bvlgari’s engineering team has come up with interesting answers to this problem. As demonstrated in the house’s 2025 novelty, the Octo Finissimo Ultra Tourbillon, the case back makes up part of the movement instead of merely being an outer shell. There are two crowns instead of one, for winding and setting the time separately. And unlike traditional barrel-shaped crowns, these particular ones take the shape of a wheel, not unlike the gears within the movement.

This tourbillon version of the Octo Finissimo measures only 1.85mm thick, which is mind-boggling considering that it comes with a tourbillon. And despite this thinness, the BVF 900 movement still runs at 28,800 beats per hour, with a power reserve of 42 hours.

The thing about the Octo Finissimo collection is that the watches are not a final product. The advances that Bvlgari has made will only pave the way to more impressive builds in the future. Each tenth of a millimetre that they manage to shave, no matter how small it may seem in the moment, may someday pave the way for more advancements, and that is a worthy pursuit.

Get Your Freak On

There are few watches that can identify with the motto ‘no dial, no hands, no crown’, and Ulysse Nardin’s Freak collection does exactly that. This credit goes to the original movement in the first Freak made in 2001, with improvements in subsequent iterations such as the UN-240 in the Freak One.

What makes this watch movement special? For one, this watch does not require hands, because the movement itself tells the time. It does this by rotating around the centre, effectively getting the entire dial in on the time-telling action.

So if there is no crown, how do you wind the movement or set the time? You do that by turning the bezels. Though outside of time setting, there will be very little need for winding as the movement boasts a 90- hour power reserve, which is very impressive, even among the more power-savvy watches.

Plus, its efficient automatic winding capabilities will transform even the slightest wrist movements into power. This is thanks to the Grinder system, which draws its name from the winches on racing yachts that operate similarly.

Another interesting factor about this movement is that it was the first to utilise silicon parts, something unheard of even in the fairly contemporary years of 2001. This offered the benefits of magnetic resistance while eschewing the need for lubrication, which indirectly increased the time needed between services. And while silicon may be a common material in watchmaking today, it was the Freak that paved the way for its interest and development.

Horology has often bridged the worlds of physics and art. Sometimes, we get workhorse movements that are reliable in various conditions, and other times, we are treated to manmade finishes that inspire the soul. With the Freak’s series of movements, it is about both, but taken to extremes. And for that, it lives up to its name, in a very good way.

Once you are done with this story, click here to catch up with our latest issue.