In April 2024 Vacheron Constantin completed the most complicated watch ever made, the Berkley Grand Complication, with 63 complications, a number of which are based on the lunisolar Chinese calendar. This clockskin presents one of these complications, the Chinese calendar’s Hour Pillar, with a modified version of the hour pillar subdial of the watch.
The Chinese calendar uses a combination of the Four Pillars of Destiny and the Chinese zodiac to determine a person’s fate and personality: the Year Pillar, the Month Pillar, the Day Pillar and the Hour Pillar. For the hour pillar, the Chinese use double hours, so each animal sign is associated with a two-hour period of the day. For example, the hours of the Horse are 11 AM–1 PM, the Goat are 1–3 PM, the Monkey are 3–5 PM, and the Rooster are 5–7 PM. This clockskin displays the correct hour pillar with a gold hand that rotates over a 24-hour cycle. The above image, at the time of 10:09PM (22:09), shows the hour pillar in the range of 9-11PM, the hours of the Pig.
Credit: Vacheron Constantin Berkley Grand Complication
Clockskin Download Zip File: Vacheron Constantin Berkley Grand Complication
I have posted on youtube a video (13 minutes) of my “.watch” watch face version of the Berkley Grand Complication. About 52 of its complications are accurately modeled in the watch face, including most importantly the complex Chinese calendar (for the next 18 years), but also other complications such as chimes, minute repeater, sidereal time, equation of time, alarm, second time zone, sunrise/sunset, moon phase, split-second chronometer, Gregorian calendar, tourbillon and more. Translation between Chinese and English is also provided in the watch face.