An every woman's guide to everything a watch can do (other than tell time)

Because, well, it's complicated. 

Because, well, it's complicated. 

Each month Right on Time will tap into watch trends, offer advice, ask collectors to show us their pieces, question interesting people in the industry and unpack horological moments –  the great, the small, the Rihanna motivated and the ones we can’t stop thinking about. Because while the column is about watches, really it’s more about time, and all the things that can mean to us.

There’s a scene in Mindy Kaling's quite charming high school comedy series Never Have I Ever… where one of the students is trying to get more students to join her robotics club. When the club holds an open day to try and drum up more members she soon realises she is alone in a sea of gatekeeping dudes who make fun of a potential new member because she doesn’t know what a motherboard is.

Sign up to the Vogue newsletter

“I could learn!” she insists. But she doesn’t join the robotics club (or at least, and spoiler alert, she doesn’t join straightaway).

The same kind of experience could easily happen when it comes to watches. Technical features in a watch are literally called complications. Spend a little too much time in a watch forum or on a date with a guy who’s made his mechanical watch his personality you could easily become overwhelmed. You might quit before you’ve even tried! 

But we don’t want that to happen in robotics or in watches. 

So below, Right on Time rounds up the watch complications to know about. Because watches can do more than merely tell the time. Understanding how they work truly makes you appreciate them even more. I’m practically certain this would also be the same experience for robotics too. 

Chronograph

Plenty of watches have a chronograph complication, which is essentially a stopwatch. It allows you to keep track of the actual time as well as how long it took you to run a lap of the oval, should you be so inclined. A second pusher (generally these sit next to the crown—the little knob at 3 o’clock) will re-set the chronograph. Big deal chronographs include the Tudor Black Bay Chronograph, Rolex Daytona Cosmograph and the Tag Heuer Monaco. 

GMT/dual time

Ever been in one place but your heart (or your lover) is another? This is when you need a GMT complication. Named for Greenwich Mean Time and introduced in 1953 in the golden era of the jet age when pilots suddenly needed to keep track of different time zones, this complication lets you track multiple time zones at a glance. It works with a second hour hand and a 24-hour scale on the bezel or dial—the main hour hand can be fixed to point to local time when travelling and the additional hour hand can point to the time at home or another time. Some watches will let you set a third time zone. Some cool GMT watches include Bremont Specialised Diver GMT, Hublot Big Bang Unico GMT and of course the Rolex GMT-Master II, which was created for Pan Am pilots in 1955.

Perpetual Calendar

While there are other calendar watches, the perpetual calendar is the fanciest one—the movement allows for the length of every month, including February and including leap years. If you keep a perpetual calendar watch running (which to be clear, is not going to come cheap—this is the cat’s pyjamas of complications) the date won’t need to be adjusted until 2100. Which, well, is most likely the lucky person you bequeath your watch to will be tasked with. Some truly fine perpetual calendar watches include, Audemars Piguet 11.59, Vacheron Constantin Perpetual Calendar Ultra-Thin and the Patek Philippe Grand Complications Self-Winding. 

Date window

This is your friendliest complication, basically what it says on the tin—a date display on a disc that appears under an aperture of the dial (usually at 3 o’clock, 4:30 o’clock or 6 o’clock). Unless it’s a more complicated annual or perpetual calendar watch you’re going to need to adjust it forward for any month shorter than 31 days. Some date window watches to covet include Omega Seamaster Aqua Terra, Rolex Day-Date and Cartier Tank Française.

Moon phase

Ahh, the moon phase. The most romantic of the watch complications. This one tracks the phases of the moon with a little moon symbol on the watch, showing the sunlit portion of the moon as seen on earth. It works via a disc with 59 ‘teeth’ that keep the moon phase in motion via the hour hand to align with the 29.5 or so days of a full moon cycle.  It’s cosmic and charming and a reminder to look to the sky and the universe and all that exists beyond. Some dreamy ones include Jaeger Le-Coultre Rendez-Vous Classic, Breguet Classique 7787 Moon Phases and Longines Master Moonphase. 

Minute repeater

OK, this one is a super special one. It’s a complication that can chime the exact time of day (with different sounds for the hour, quarter and minutes) on demand by pressing a pusher or pulling a slider function. The magic happens via teeny hammers striking specific gongs inside the watch. Because of the complexity of the minute repeater watch only very limited quantities are produced each year and they have the price tag to match. You can find exceptional ones at the likes of Patek Philippe, Jaeger Le-Coultre and Breguet. 

Sign up to the Vogue newsletter

Originally published as An every woman's guide to everything a watch can do (other than tell time)