Patek Philippe is one of the oldest and most prestigious watch companies in the world. Founded by Antoni Norbert de Patek and Franciszek Czapek in 1839, the company was originally known as PATEK, CZAPEK & Co. In 1845, Patek and Czapek separated so that the company became Patek & Co. In 1851, Patek joined efforts with Jean-Adrien Philippe thus forming the Patek Philippe & Cie label.

Patek Philippe made the first wristwatch in 1868. The prestigious company moved on to gather about 70 patents in perpetual calendar for pocket watches; precision regulator; split seconds chronograph; double chronograph and first self-winding wristwatch to name a few.

The deaths of Anton Patek (1877) and Jean-Adrien Philippe (1894) brought about the eventual acquisition of the company by Charles Stern in 1932. The change of ownership did not change the company’s goal of producing excellent and innovative time pieces.

In 1989, Patek Philippe celebrated its 150^th anniversary.  To commemorate the event, Patek Philippe presented the Calibre 89, declared as the most complicated watch in the world. It has 33 complications edging out the Henry Graves Jr. super-complicated watch with 24 complications also made by Patek Philippe in 1933.

Patek Philippe Calibre 89 is an astronomical open-faced watch with twin dials. Its 33 complications are divided into five functional categories namely: timekeeping; chronograph; calendar; chime and operational functions. It weighs 1.1 kg, has 1,728 components and 24 hands. It is made of 18 karat gold at an estimated value of US$5 to US$6 million.  The watch took about five years of intensive research and development to conceptualize.  It took another four years to finally set the wheels in motion in manufacturing the watch.

There are only four models of Calibre 89 made by Patek Philippe – one of each in white gold, yellow gold, rose gold and platinum.  It was said that an unidentified royal family bought the whole collection. However, the collection was separated, as in 2004, the white gold edition of Calibre 89 was auctioned at Antiquorum’s 30^th anniversary for US$5,002,652.  Just recently, the Calibre 89 in the yellow gold edition was auctioned off at Antiquorum’s 35^th anniversary for US$ 4,877,662.00. That leaving the rose and platinum edition still at the hands of its original buyer.

What makes this pocket watch so interesting and complicated?  Imagine cramming 33 functions in to a single pocket watch. Imagine having that watch and actually using all the functions or just basically knowing how the watch ticks.

On the front dial are the following complications: day of the month; hour hands; 12-hour recorder; up-down chime; day of the week; hour of second time-zone; Chronograph second hand; Seconds hand; Moonphases; Winding crown position indicator; Century decade and year displays; Leap Year Indicator; Minutes Hands; Chronograph counter; Power Reserve; Month; Split second hand and thermometer.

The second dial has the sidereal time hour hand; time of sunrise;  star chart; date of Easter Equation of time, Sun hand, sidereal time minute hand  and  sidereal time second hand and the time of sunset.

A beautiful and complicated time piece like this only comes once in a lifetime, well in this case four times!

Iconic watches provides several patek philippe watches click to find out more.

This platinum & astronomic Patek Philippe 5049P was made for British jeweller Boodle and Dunthorne in 1998 in just 20 pieces. Features include a perpetual calender, moon phase, 24 hours and a leap year indicator. You know, all that jazz. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to snatch this sucker up – after all, it’s just £62,500. The Patek Philippe 5049P is available for sale right here on JamesList or Here on Iconicwatches.co.uk.

The Company Franck Muller was founded in 1991 making it currently only 19 years old – a complete child when compared to brands with pedigrees like Breguet or Patek. But as much as we respect and value a timepiece with history and a legacy you can not take the fact away from Franck Muller, that they strive to produce some amazingly complicated watches – one cannot help but draw comparisons with a young Monsieur Abraham Louis Breguet who as a young man had similar such aims and accomplishments.

From creating some exquisite movements, Franck Muller went on to miniaturising his complications, he created the cintree curvex case, a case that is curved meaning his movements would have to be modified to accommodate this spectacular design. The cintree curvex was inspired by the 1920’s Patek Philippe watches and really does identify the Franck Muller watch range.

Again like Breguet,  Frank Muller wants to be the first to produce certain complications in 1993 his world premier (each year he showcases a watch featuring a never before seen complication or combination of complications) item featured a split seconds Chrono, a minute repeater and a perpetual calendar.

Franck Muller went as far as to produce the worlds most complicated wrist watch in 1998. The watch included the following; a Grande and Petite Sonnerie (with 3 positions), a Minute Repeater, a Perpetual Calendar (with retrograde monthly equation), 24-hour indicator, a split-second Chronograph (with 60-minute timer), a flying Tourbillon, indicator of the internal temperature of the mechanism, power-reserve striking-mechanism, power-reserve movement. This really established the brand as a “master of complications” the ingenuity in the design and the handmade craftsmanship produced some of the world’s finest watches.

One very innovative design by Franck Muller, which we think is marvellous, is the creation of the crazy hours range, to a rational person a watch should always tell the correct time, however this line of watches have the hours in a jumbled order, the watch tells the correct time, but a wearer is forced to think about the time. The crazy hours range is great for parties and a real talking point while wearing the watch.

In the early 00’s Franck Muller went through a bit of a boon becoming very popular with footballers and celebrities, he had some exceptional celebrity endorsement this really raised the watches profile among the masses, unfortunately this translated to the watches loosing favour with some of the traditional watch collectors. Although their marketing department has recently made an effort to polish their image it still isn’t uncommon to hear Franck Muller pieces degradedly referred to as “footballers watches”. However, we must not forget that Franck Muller, in its 19 year history was granted the first prize, in the men’s category, of the Geneve Watch Making Grand Prix. This exclusive prize confirms the watchmaker’s exceptional talent.

All in all we are a huge lover of watches and complications, we think they are intriguing and we’re not so bothered about who else wears a Franck Muller as having one on your wrist and being so close to passion that strove to keep pushing the boundaries of horology feels pretty special. It’s while studying these exceptional time pieces that we just fell in love with them, definitely a Franck Muller belongs in everyones watch collection. New Franck Muller watches retail from about £3,500 to £500,000 and from iconic watches you can expect a great deal. We love FM and we have several years of sales experience with this brand.