horology: what date is it?

I'm going to talk about horology and, in particular, perpetual calendar watches today. First off, though, is the disclaimer:

I'm not an expert in horology. And I don't own any expensive timepieces.

I can only dream of having one!

But I'm fascinated by them. Every time I visit the dentist, I'll grab the chance to browse through the many copies of The Peak magazine at the shelves whilst waiting. The Peak, by the way, is a magazine for the rich and famous (read: dentists are filthy rich, since they aren't famous), and has pages and pages of advertisements from the likes of Patek Philippe (the Rolls-Royce of watches), Zenith, Jaeger-LeCoultre, IWC, and many others.

First thing you need to know about such timepieces:

What's so special about being Swiss or Swiss Made?

You can't just open a watch factory in Switzerland and start inscribing Swiss Made on all your watches - there're strict regulations governing the usage of such a term. So when you buy a Swiss Made watch, you can be sure that it comes with a seal of quality. Take a look around. Even the plain vanilla ones that only tell the time would cost you a few hundred bucks at least.

Okay, there're many other things you need to know about horology, but I'm not going to talk about them here because I don't know them either, ha! So I'll jump straight to my favourite part: perpetual calendars.

I'm a sucker for perpetual calendar watches. Given a choice between a perpetual calendar and a chronograph watch, I won't hesitate to pick the perpetual calendar even though chronographs normally look better (who uses the chronograph anyway?). Perpetual calendars are so much more useful, and you can get one from Seiko (non-Swiss) for as low as 200 plus bucks here. I have one and I love it!

But just what is a perpetual calendar?

It can be defined as:

A device that changes the date at the end of each month including the 29th February in leap years.

Simply put, whether the month has 30 or 31 days, the date on the watch will adjust accordingly. And for February, whether it's a leap year or not (28 or 29 days). Absolutely brilliant, non?

So technically speaking, you'll never have to adjust the date on your perpetual calendar watch. Well, almost never anyway, because here comes the caveat:

All perpetual calendar watches in the world will malfunction in the year 2100.

"Holy shite," I hear you exclaim. "Is the world going to end in 2100?"

Don't worry, my little friends, the world won't end in 2100. At least not due to exploding watches! Actually, this is due to a little known fact about the Gregorian Calendar that we follow:

Every year divisible by 100 is not a leap year, unless it is divisible by 400.

That's quite a mouthful, but it simply means that the years 1700, 1800, 1900 and 2100 are not leap years, but 1600 and 2000 are. A-ha! I bet most of you didn't know that! While most of us learned ones know that the year 2000 is not really the start of the new millenium, there is something special about that year after all:

The year 2000 was only the second time since the Gregorian calendar was introduced that the "400-year rule" was applied.

Despite that, perpetual calendar watches are still being sold everywhere, mainly because most of us won't live till 2100 (that's reality, so don't choi me). However, in the year 2095, if you happen to consider buying one, think twice because you'll only get five useful years from the watch. Remember what oh (should be old by then, haha) told you 90 years ago!

Heheh, no need to thank me for it. Just a small token of appreciation will do. Like the cheapest Patek Philippe watch you can find. I'm not picky! If I'm not around you can pass it to my grandchildren. After all,

you never actually own a Patek Philippe. You merely take care of it for the next generation.

Ha!

You must be wondering why don't they take into account that special non-leap hundredth year. Well, if it were only that simple! There are actually three types of calendar watches:

1. Annual calendars - These take care of the 30 and 31, but not the month of February. So you'll need to adjust them once a year.
2. Perpetual calendars - As what I mentioned above.
3. Secular calendars - These take care of everything, even the special non-leap hundredth years like 2100.

Only the perpetual calendar is common. The annual calendar is rare, but available from a few watchmakers. The secular calendar is even rarer. Even though Patek Philippe holds a patent for such a complication, it's never made a watch with it. So even if you have all the money in the world, you can't buy it.

Don't despair, my little friends. There is one actually. The one and only in the world. It's known as the Perpetuel Secular Calender (deliberate misspelling?) from Svend Andersen.

Well, actually there's another.

It's called Casio - non-Swiss, no complications, nothing. Just plain cheap software!

But that's not horology!

Oh, by the way, I got almost all my information from here. Told you I'm no expert - just good at quoting others!