...Plus the Kitchen Sink

"Master of Complications" manufacturer Franck Muller announced today the completion of what appears to be the world's most complicated watch to date. After 5 years of development the Aeternitas Mega 4 is comprised of 1483 components and boasts a total of 36 complications 25 of which are clearly visible. The first piece was actually presented to an American collector in November of 2009, Franck Muller has been looking forward to putting the Mega into limited production and have been dotting the T's and crossing the I's since it's first delivery. The watch will make its debut to the press on two occasions via the World Presentation of Haute Horlogerie [WPHH] exhibitions at Frank Muller's famed "Watchland" site in Genthod from January 17th through the 23rd and again on March 17th through the 27th from 9:00 am to 6:00 pm. Just in case you want to go and kick the tires a little. For those interested in putting an order in on the Mega 4, it will cost you 2.7 million dollars [US] for the privilege of owning one. If you are worried that your hefty investment won't yield a watch for a lifetime, the Mega 4 also contains a 1000 year calendar before it needs to be reset, which of course means it will keep the correct day/date display [even over leap years] as long as the watch remains powered. I would imagine [and hope] there are some other perks provided by Franck Muller for throwing that kind of money their way...maybe a nice cleaning cloth, or perhaps a nice key chain.

Along with several Franck Muller pieces, the exhibition will be showcasing all of the brands that full under the umbrella of Franck Muller including watches from; Pierre Kunz, ECW, Rudolphe Montres & Bijoux, Barthelay, Backes & Strauss, and Martin Braun.

So, I can already hear you asking me; "Well what are all of the complications, Craig?" you're going to make me list them aren't you...You are, I can tell. Here is a numbered list of every complication the Aeternitas Mega 4 has.

1. Day/Night Display

2. Grand Strike
3. Small Strike
4. Silence
5. Minute Repeater
6. Westminster Carillon on 4 Gong
7. Programming of Grand strike-Small strike function with a waterproof push piece & display on the dial.
8. Programming of Strike Silence function with a waterproof push piece & display on the dial
9. Lifting-lever mechanism of the strike when in hand setting position
10. A mechanism which prevents the start of a new strike if the precedent is not to the end.
11.Transmission mechanism to the hammer which permit the adaptation to the different shape of the gong.
12. 3-Day power reserve
13. Power reserve indicator
14. Strike power reserve indicator
15. Tourbillon carriage
16. Automatic winding with a micro rotor
17. Perpetual calender
18. Display of days
19. Display of months
20. 999 year calendar
21. Chronograph
22. Equation of time function
23. Indication of the secular yea.....

...Ya know what? It does a lot of stuff, and I'm not going to list them all. Don't worry, I hit the important ones ;-) .

Click on image for more detail

All of this is packed neatly into an 18 karat white gold case that measures a width of 42mm, a length of 61 mm and is a whopping 19.15 mm thick! That's a rather impressively small size for a watch packed with so many parts and functions.

It's quite a feat for Franck Muller to create what they have, and I would think its fair to say that the Aeternitas Mega 4 definitely puts them a big leap forward in being the "Master of Complications", as they so boldly proclaim.