To pay tribute to its 175th anniversary, Patek Philippe created a collection of limited-edition commemorative timepieces, and one of them stands out in particular. It is the so far most complicated wristwatch of the eminent family-owned watchmaking companies and decidedly one of the world’s most elaborate wristwatches.
This is due not only to the number of complications involved but also to the horological degrees of complexity, two of which have been added to the annals of watchmaking for the first time.
Moreover, the Grandmaster Chime is the first double-face wristwatch presented by Patek Philippe that can be worn with either dial facing up: the one that focuses on the time and the sonnerie, the other dedicated to the full instantaneous perpetual calendar.

Patek Philippe’s Grandmaster Chime is a wrist-format timekeeping instrument of absolutely unprecedented complexity and ingenuity that establishes new benchmarks in terms of technical and aesthetic elegance.
Its double-face case with a diameter of 47 mm, it accommodates four spring barrels and no fewer than 20 complications, including coveted functions such as a Grande and Petite Sonnerie, a minute repeater, an instantaneous perpetual calendar with a four-digit year display, a second time zone, and two patented global debuts in the domain of chiming watches: an acoustic alarm that strikes the alarm time and a date repeater that sounds the date on demand. Four additional patents emphasize the innovative thrust behind this watch.

The Grandmaster Chime is a striking example of the “intelligent watch” as envisioned by Patek Philippe’s philosophy. To protect complicated timepieces against damage caused by inadvertent manipulations, the manfacture’s engineers devised clever “isolators” that interrupt the flow of power between individual mechanisms or block certain functions while others are active.
The engraved inscriptions and symbols on the case and the pushers are further hallmarks of convenience that make the Grandmaster Chime a self-explanatory grand complication watch.

The rotation process on the Patek Philippe Grandmaster Chime

The effort invested by Patek Philippe in this unique anniversary timepiece is unprecedented. More than 100,000 hours were logged for development, production, and assembly, of which 60,000 hours for the components of the movement.
Each caliber consists of 1,366 parts and each case of 214 separate parts, bringing the total number of components for each Grandmaster Chime to 1,580. Thus, it took 11,060 meticulously hand-finished parts to assemble the seven limited-edition exemplars of Patek Philippe’s commemorative Grandmaster Chime masterpiece.

Source: Patek Philippe