A Planar Pursuit And The Art Of Ultra Slim Watches
5 min read
Personally, I’ve always preferred slim watches over complicated ones. Agreed, a horological complication is a peak realization of mechanical intricacy in a timekeeper, but that’s simply many moving parts. Thin watches, on the other hand, pose a challenge of different sorts. I’m not talking about the ones often compared to credit cards but those that offer a handsomely slim case for the content they pack.
Historically, this proportional minimalism along the vertical axis has been a gauge of a watchmaker’s true legitimacy and poses as a genuine demonstration of skill. Here, slimness isn’t a yield of any compromised distillation and the resulting product isn’t something that’s not inherently perceptible as a mainstream timekeeper.
Sometimes overkill tactics are nothing but kind of a science project exercise for brands trying to gain bragging rights and consequently - world records. Well, that’s a genre of a different kind and anything but traditional to haute horlogerie.
The Origins Of Slim Watches
Very few exercises demonstrate superior watchmaking talent. Greater slimness of a watch is definitely one. When portable clocks and later pocket watches became a thing, there was nothing to qualify as being slim. The many constraints in the design of their mechanics restricted the deficiency of vertical dimension. To be honest, that wasn’t even an objective, as the said timekeepers strived in ornate decoration and mechanical complexity.
The middle years of the 18th century forged a genuine reform in movement architecture, courtesy of Frenchman Jean-Antoine Lépine, to cater a growing demand for thinner watches. Lépine’s alterations substituted the top-plate holding the upper pivots of the train wheels with a series of cocks and bridges. His modifications to the verge escapement further allowed for flatter movement construction.
Lépine’s design led the revolutions in flat watches construction and the so-called Lépine caliber persists as the basis of most modern movements.
Over the years, the exercises to yield flat movements attained an impressive climax and Jaeger-LeCoultre’s 20th century exploits in such regards realized calibers that were under 2 mm thick. The Jaeger-LeCoultre caliber 145 and caliber 849 at only 1.38 mm and 1.85mm respectively are seminal byproducts of this obsession.
The more modern interpretations of self-winding ultra-thin movements, such as Audemars Piguet’s 2.45 mm thick caliber 2120 (based on the Jaeger-LeCoultre caliber 920 from 1967, which is to date the thinnest full-rotor automatic movement ever made), pose as feature amalgams of smart design choices. The caliber 2120 and its variants support complication modules, hence realizing slim versions of diverse kinds. Piaget, a brand synonymous with ultra-thin watchmaking, developed the self-winding caliber 12P in 1960. At only 2.3 mm thick, it’s technically impressive even today.
Together, the calibers 849, the 12P, and the 2120 are very much a sensible extremity of ultra-slim watchmaking realized via conventional materials and methods.
What’s Special In Slim Watches?
Even in a modern context, the ability to make slim watches is a technical and design distinction. It represents a kind of watchmaking drenched in challenges, so many in fact, that it’s unarguable to rank the same as a category of complicated watchmaking. If not in component numbers, the said is definitely complicated in number of challenges.
For a watch to operate at a reasonable amplitude and run accurately, you need a mainspring of greater height. In case of a slim watch, as that’s not objectively favorable, tolerances in development and assembly of movement components need to be optimal so as to minimize power loss due to friction. Also, re-engineering of movement architecture is a pertinent requisite to ditch the dimensions. Instead of dual-pivot mainspring barrels, a single one should suffice both stability and accuracy.
In case of self-winding ultra-thin calibers, you can either opt for a micro-rotor or choose an oscillating weight with peripheral mass condensation. In the latter case, underside ruby rollers running in a circular rail compensate for the loss in stability.
So, it takes a lot to be slim!
A Slim Watch Beyond Its Caliber
Obviously, it’s not the movement we wear, it’s the case. However, the former is the enabler of an overall slim watch. When there’s very little material to pack, the packaging doesn’t need to be excessive. That’s the leverage to realize a very slim cased watch. While the calibers 849, the 12P, and the 2120 are technical marvels, we recognize and adore them as the Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Ultra Thin Squelette, the Piaget Ref. 12103, and the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Ref. 5402.
Each of these represents a handsomely thin timepiece that condenses watchmaking of the traditional kind into a minimal proposition that wows with wafer-thin slenderness. The proportion-perfection from such a product is instantly satisfying and when the said watch retains traditional high watchmaking excellence, absolutely nothing other than the heft gets lost in this pursuit of slimness.
Here’re a few modern examples that sustain the tradition of horological slimness.
Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Selfwinding Perpetual Calendar Ultra-Thin
Features: Full perpetual calendar movement with 40-hour power reserve.
Thickness: 6.2 mm.
Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Ultra Thin Perpetual Calendar
Features: Full perpetual calendar movement with 70-hour power reserve.
Thickness: 9.2 mm.
Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Extra-Thin Selfwinding Flying Tourbillon Chronograph
Features: A flyback chronograph with flying tourbillon with 72-hour power reserve.
Thickness: 8.1 mm.
Breguet Classique 5157
Features: Off-center automatic winding and 45-hour power reserve.
Thickness: 5.5 mm.
Breguet Classique Tourbillon Extra-Plat 5367
Features: An extra-flat automatic tourbillon movement with 80-hour power reserve.
Thickness: 7.5 mm.
Vacheron Constantin Overseas Perpetual Calendar Ultra-Thin Skeleton
Features: A skeletonized perpetual calendar movement with 40-hour power reserve.
Thickness: 8.1 mm.
Chopard L.U.C XPS Forest Green
Features: COSC certified chronometer caliber with 65-hour power reserve.
Thickness: 7.2 mm.
Nomos Glashütte Club Sport Neomatik Worldtimer
Features: In-house worldtime caliber with 42-hour power reserve.
Thickness: 9.9 mm.
Patek Philippe Complications 5180/1R-001
Features: Skeletonized and hand-engraved caliber with 48-hour power reserve.
Thickness: 6.7 mm.
Zenith Elite Classic
Features: ELITE manufacture caliber with self-winding and 50-hour power reserve.
Thickness: 9.1 mm.
