Vacheron Constantin has given its series of one-of-a-kind chiming watches the poetically evocative name ?La Musique du Temps,? and this year?s addition to that ultra-exclusive collection, unveiled recently on the Watches & Wonders 2020 virtual platform, may be the most ambitious yet. The Les Cabinotiers Astronomical Striking Grand Complication features no less than 19 complications, displayed on two dials, all built around the foundation of the minute repeater function and incorporated into a caliber less than 8 mm thick.

Vacheron Constantin Les Cabinotiers Astronomical Striking Grand Complication

In addition to the minute repeater, the watch includes a perpetual calendar with moon phases,; indications for solar, civil, and sidereal time; and other astronomical displays including zodiac signs and indicators for the seasons, solstices, and equinoxes.
Framed by a 45-mm rose gold case, the main dial in opaline blue hosts an array of features: central hands for the civil and solar time, the latter identified by a serrated-edge ?sun? pointer, both hands together serving as a running equation-of-time indicator; a serpentine hand indicating the date in a subdial at 3 o?clock; pointer-type displays of sunrise and sunset times, accompanied by a linear day-night indicator at 6 o?clock; the current day, month, and leap-year in apertures between 12 and 12 o?clock; and an aperture at 9 o?clock for the moon?s phase and age and day-night indicator. The Zodiac signs are tucked...