We recently brought you Vacheron Constantin’s Day-Date and Power Reserve from the manufacture’s Excellence Platine collection. We concluded that while the piece was a moderate complication, it was an expression of Vacheron’s artisanal passion and a statement of understated perfection. At Watches & Wonders, we came across the other end of that spectrum – and we are very excited to bring you the Vacheron Constantin Maitre Cabinotier Astronomica. This is a one-of-a-kind timepiece that combines 15 of the most demanding complications in one movement. It’s even difficult to pick a starting point, because the Astronomica is packed with so many features.

The Astronomica is a minute repeater – that is, it chimes the time (in increments of hours, quarters and minutes) – and the complication includes a flying strike governor. This is a device that regulates the rate at which the hammers strike the gongs (through pretty complex means – two inertia block weights on a rotating shaft that even out energy supplied by the barrel spring through opposing centrifugal and centripetal forces). You can see it employed in the Patrimony Contemporaine Ultra Thin 1731 that we brought you last year.