The IWC Eternal Calendar - thoughts after viewing it at the recent IWC x Tatler GMT event at the IWC boutique in Pavillion KL

This is the IWC Eternal Calendar. A secular perpetual watch so complicated, in its mechanical complications, that even without a need of an electronic calculator can keep an accurate perpetual moonphase with 45,000,000 years accuracy and a calendar accurate until 3499ad. Simply outrageous and I have held such a contraption in my hands about a month or so ago at an IWC x Tatler GMT event at its boutique at the Pavillion Kuala Lumpur.

"Power reserve display; Secular perpetual calendar with displays for the date, day, month, and year in four digits; perpetual moon phase with 45,000,000 years accuracy for both Northern and Southern hemispheres; 400-year gear for the recognition of irregular leap years; small hacking seconds calendar accurate until 3499 (only because the Gregorian calendar has not been calculated further)" - taken from Hodinkee. 

The watch itself is a little bit on the large size at 43mm in diameter and most importantly, very thick - over 15mm I believe, due to having to fit many things inside the case in order for it to tell time almost for all eternity. As befits its name. 

It is impressive, but while the movement itself can keep the time and date until 3499, you must ensure that you do not let it power down. It has a seven day power reserve which is impressive, but if you miss a couple of days you can set it foward. And if you move a day or two forward you can let it stop, then wait for the day to arrive. 

There is actually no way to for the owner to set each function individually as the IWC movement that it is based upon is without any extra pushes or buttons other than what is visible. A good example is the Blancpain perpetual calendar in their Villeret series. These buttons set near the bottom of each lug allows owner adjustments. 

I believe that IWC should have given owners that option for what is such an impressive device. 

Of course, you could send it back to IWC if you screw up, and get them to reset the watch after you've forgotten to do so after it sits in your watchbox or safe for years after its novelty has worn off and after you've done flexing it to your friends that you own the ETERNAL CALENDAR. But it most likely will cost you after that warranty period or the first time you screw up has happened and they give you a freebie for your mistake.

They should as it costs RM750,000 at least here in Malaysia.

But what a watch it is. Your future generations get to tell the time for eternity....except you need to factor in the usual recommended ten year service intervals that most mechanical watches have and the fact that you may need to change the Year wheel once every few hundred or thousand years as according to IWC, that swap is required.

Your future generations will either curse at the service costs or revel in its mechanical glory for a long long time and will be cherished over the centuries - better make sure your trust fund allows your great great great grand children to afford it. It is an engineering marvel nonetheless.

I have the idea that this Eternal Calendar is like the Antikythera. This mechanism is an ancient Greek artifact, often referred to as the first known analog computer, a calculator of sorts which was discovered in a shipwreck off the coast of Antikythera in 1901. This intricate bronze device was used to predict astronomical positions and eclipses. Somewhat like the Eternal Calendar and I imagine in a very distant future where records have been lost, archeologists may think we weren't advanced as we as today and thought that we did everything mechanically. Which we didn't. 

It shows that we still put out feats of marvel out of things that are obsolete. We do not need mechanical watches as our quartz watches are more accurate over a period of time but we still tinker and innovate. 

I am actually glad I had a chance to see one and am also glad that IWC made one despite its shortcomings. 

Eternally impressive in my books.