Solaria by Vacheron Constantin: A Record-Breaking Number of Complications!
<img width="1280" height="720" src="https://ostermanwatch.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/vacheron-constantin-les-cabinotiers-solaria-ultra-grand-compl
In 2025, to celebrate its 270th anniversary, Vacheron Constantin is doing more than just revisiting its history: it is writing a new record in the watchmaking history books. With the Solaria Ultra Grande Complication, La Première, the Geneva-based manufacture unveils a fascinating timepiece featuring 41 complications, setting a new world record for a wristwatch.
Eight years of development, 1,521 components, 13 patents filed: this watchmaking creation is far more than a technical demonstration. It is a work of mechanical art, an ode to astronomy, miniaturisation, and the quest for the sublime.
Solaria draws its inspiration from the star that governs our existence. The watch offers three readings of time: civil, solar, and sidereal, each based on a different definition of time. Beyond this complexity, it integrates 14 astronomical complications, some of which are entirely new, such as a moving sky chart coupled with a split-seconds chronograph that determines the precise moment a star appears
from a given location on Earth. A world first.
The 45 mm white gold case, measuring just 14.99 mm in thickness, houses 1,521 components, an exceptional technical density made possible by extreme miniaturisation. The display is spread across two faces, offering remarkable legibility despite the wealth of information. The peripheral sunrise and sunset disc, cut from 0.18 mm sapphire, is a testament to this quest for thinness.
The 45 mm white gold case, measuring just 14.99 mm in thickness, houses 1,521 components, an exceptional technical density made possible by extreme miniaturisation. The display is spread across two faces, offering remarkable legibility despite the wealth of information. The peripheral sunrise and sunset disc, cut from 0.18 mm sapphire, is a testament to this quest for thinness.
The Solaria features a minute repeater with a Westminster chime, enhanced by patented innovations: rectangular gongs for greater rigidity, steel hammers alloyed with gold to increase inertia, and a double-buffer system for a cleaner strike. The result is a melody of rare clarity, despite the compactness of the case.
Calibre 3655 drives all of these functions, including a silicon tourbillon, a complete perpetual calendar, astronomical moon phases, tides, equinoxes, and solstices, as well as international time functions (24 cities) and a power reserve indicated on a semi-circular disc. Every component is hand-decorated: beveling, mirror polishing, circular graining... nothing is left to chance.
Solaria is more than a technical feat. It embodies the very essence of watchmaking according to Vacheron Constantin: “Do better if possible, and that is always possible.” It is not just a watch; it is a miniature cosmos, an invitation to explore time in all its dimensions.
The 41 complications of the Solaria Ultra Grande Complication, La Première:
Timekeeping (6)
Civil time
Solar time
Sidereal time
Day/night indication for the reference city
Second 24-hour time zone
World time (24 cities)
Perpetual calendar (8)
Date
Day
Month
Year
Leap year
ISO day number
ISO week number
Central time display coupled with the base movement
Moon phase indications (3)
Astronomical moon phase
Age of the moon
Tides (spring and neap)
Astronomical indications (14)
Seasons, equinoxes, and solstices
Position of the Sun (reference city)
Sunrise and sunset
Day length
Equation of time
Time of solar culmination
Altitude of the Sun above the horizon
Declination of the Sun
Latitude of the Sun in the hemisphere
Sidereal hours and minutes
Astronomical zodiac signs
Sky chart (reference city)
Temporal tracking of celestial objects
Striking mechanism (5)
Minute repeater
Westminster chime (4 hammers, 4 gongs)
Chime selector
Crown locking during striking
Double-buffer system for the hammers
Split-seconds chronograph (4)
Column-wheel chronograph
60-minute counter
Column-wheel split-seconds
Isolator system for the split-seconds
Other (1)
Power reserve indicator (190° disc)
If you enjoyed this article, you might also like to read about the new Land-Dweller by Rolex
Osterman Watch
An independent, rigorous, uncompromising watch media outlet
No advertising
No commercial influence
Zero data resale
We serve only watchmaking
Not brands. Not algorithms. Not forced trends.
Support Osterman Watch
Preserve an independent voice in watchmaking