Moon phase and other complications

A complication is anything a watch can do beyond showing hours, minutes and seconds: date, day, chronograph, GMT, power reserve indicator, moon phase. The moon phase is a small disc with two moons that turns once every 59 days and shows the current shape of the moon in a window — mostly for the beauty of it, and it has to be set using a calendar. Small seconds is a seconds hand in a small subdial at 6 or 9 o'clock instead of in the centre. Retrograde is a hand that moves along an arc and jumps back to the start. An annual calendar knows 30- and 31-day months (set once a year, in February); a perpetual calendar also knows leap years.

See watches with moon phase and automatic watches.

If you have a question about a particular watch, ask Nord, our assistant, at the bottom right — or write to us.