Complication
Annual calendar
Also known as: Jahreskalender · Quantième annuel
How it works
The date mechanism distinguishes 30- and 31-day months automatically, needing manual correction only once a year, at the end of February.
Why it was invented
A practical middle ground between the simple date (corrected five times a year) and the perpetual calendar.
- Invented
- 1996 (wristwatch)
- Credited to
- No single inventor documented
- Historical period
- Mechanical Renaissance
History and development
Patek Philippe introduced the annual calendar wristwatch (reference 5035) in 1996, using a gear-train design rather than the lever-and-cam programme of perpetual calendars.
Related mechanisms
In the catalogue
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Records are linked when the holding institution's description names this mechanism; check each source record for confirmation.