Les Cabinotiers Solaria Ultra Grand Complication: the mechanical symphony of the universe

The sun, the moon, the Earth, the twelve constellations, named and unnamed celestial bodies alike. There came a moment in history when people ceased to be mystified by the heavens. They began to understand its movements through reason, through mathematics, and eventually, through miniature mechanisms that could be held in the hand.

They turned to their astrolabes and quietly gathered the universe onto their wrists.

For Vacheron Constantin, renowned as the world’s oldest watchmaker in continuous operation, the pursuit extends far beyond the measurement of time. It becomes a mesmerising exchange between human curiosity and celestial choreography.

For millennia, civilisations have relied on the interplay between the sun, moon and Earth to define the earliest systems of time—the lunar calendar, the solar calendar, the perpetual calendar. In Eastern folklore, Hou Yi is said to have shot down nine suns, leaving only one to illuminate the world. Chang’e, the moon goddess, drifts above after a celestial pursuit. Though told as myth, such tales laid the foundation for timekeeping traditions.

Even now, with footprints on the moon, we continue to trace constellations shaped like lions, scorpions and urns. Swiss watchmakers, rather than aiming arrows at the sun, seek to capture its passage through a different medium—one built from balance wheels and oscillations.

It is at this meeting point where poetry finds form in precision that the Les Cabinotiers Solaria Ultra Grand Complication was born.

Unveiled at Watches and Wonders Geneva 2025, the Les Cabinotiers Solaria Ultra Grand Complication is an achievement without precedent. With 41 integrated functions, including a suite of five astronomical complications appearing together for the first time (solar position, altitude, zenith, declination, and the timing of celestial rise), Solaria becomes not only the most technically complex wristwatch in the maison’s history, but also a profound testament to the refinement of centuries of celestial study, now rendered in a compact 36 mm form.

One particular highlight is the “celestial rising time” function, an unprecedented invention that employs a split-second chronograph mechanism to measure, with remarkable precision, the moment a constellation or star appears at a specific observation point.

It seems almost implausible that such complexity resides within a watch no larger than some jewellery timepieces.

And yet, the Solaria is entirely in keeping with a storied tradition. For over two centuries, Vacheron Constantin has pursued the art of astronomical watchmaking. In 1829, it received its first commission for a moonphase watch. By 1901, it had created a pocket watch combining a minute repeater, perpetual calendar and moonphase display. Then, in 1929, a pocket watch crafted for King Fouad I of Egypt was fitted with a split-seconds function and a Grande Sonnerie minute repeater, a high point of horological artistry.

The 21st century brought its own celestial milestones: the Tour de l’Île (2005), with 16 astronomical complications; the Celestia Astronomical Grand Complication 3600 (2017), featuring 23; the Planetaria (2021), showcasing 19; and most recently, The Berkley Grand Complication (2024), the world’s first wristwatch capable of calculating a perpetual lunar calendar accurate to the year 2200.

Each of these timepieces reflects a distinct interpretation of the cosmos where time transcends minutes and hours to become a sequence of movements, subtle and unending, like a quiet symphony played beneath the stars.

“Admittedly, astronomical complications are not of daily practical use,” Vacheron Constantin concedes. But, they add, practicality is not the only ambition. These creations are meant to inspire a connection to the sky above, and to the quiet wonder that still stirs within us when we look up.

Timepieces like the Solaria do not mimic the clean-cut logic of modern smart devices. They unfold more like epic poetry, full of preludes, transitions and resonances. Here, time is not merely kept, but felt. Each mechanism reaches back into something primal: the awe of the infinite.

This sentiment emerges in an old letter, dated 24 February 1853, from Count Hyppolite Salino to the maison. In it, he wrote: “[…] I want to use this watch for astronomical purposes, and it must be a true timekeeper, made to the closest possible standard of perfection to that which is usual in your workshops.”

In those lines lives a dream not simply to observe the stars through a telescope, but to carry their rhythm, second by second, on the wrist. Somewhere, in the still of night, the ticking continues, retelling the story of humanity’s dialogue with the heavens. And among collectors, there remain those who genuinely long to touch the stars.

In Vietnam, Vacheron Constantin is officially distributed by Tam Son International Company.

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