Five Exceptional Watches with Extraordinary Power Reserves

The power reserve of a watch refers to the amount of time a watch can operate for after being fully wound, without requiring additional winding or motion. In other words, it is essentially a measure of how long the watch can keep accurate time while not being worn or wound. On the one hand, there are manual winding watches that are powered by mainsprings that need to be manually wound. The power reserve in this case typically ranges from about 36 to 48 hours, but some high-end manual watches can have longer power reserves. On the other hand, automatic watches, also known as self-winding watches, are powered by the motion of the wearer's arm; they can maintain power as long as they are worn. If not worn, the power reserve can vary but often falls in the range of 24 to 72 hours, with some luxury models having even longer reserves.

But, what if you want more? Say, a couple of weeks, a month or longer? Well, there are plenty of complex watches in the market that do just that. With this in mind, GMT India presents a list of watches with power reserves that can go up to 65 days.

Top 5 Watches with Highest Power Reserve

Vacheron Constantin Traditionnelle Twin Beat Perpetual Calendar

The Vacheron Constantin Traditionelle Twin Beat Perpetual Calendar (Ref. 3200T/000P-B578) was unveiled at the 2019 Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie (SIHH). It incorporates a standby mode, which basically stretches the power reserve to about two months. Calibre 3610 QP uses two separate gear trains with two escapements running at different frequencies, connected to one very large barrel, ensuring a power reserve of 1560 hours or 65 days. The pusher at 8 o'clock lets the wearer switch between the high- (5Hz, 36,000 vph) and low-frequency (1.2Hz, 8.640 vph) gear trains, which affects the speed of the unwinding of the mainspring.

A differential translates the correct speed to the hands. The watch comes in a 42 mm platinum case with a gold hand-guilloché slate-coloured inner dial. There are 18 ct white gold hour markers, and 18 ct white gold hour and minute hands. At 7 o'clock, the timepiece gets a date counter, at 5 o'clock a month counter, and at 9 o'clock, there is a counter with a red hand that moves from 5Hz to 1.2Hz.

Haute-Rive Honoris 1

As explained by Stéphane von Gunten, a veteran watchmaker and the brand’s founder, during an exclusive interview with GMT India, the Haute-Rive Honoris 1 watch uses an extremely long mainspring that covers almost the entire backside of the movement. At 3 metres in length, about ten times longer than a standard mainspring (25-30cm), it can store up to 1,000 hours or roughly 41 days of power. There’s a practical power reserve indicator as well. But that’s not all ― it also has a tourbillon escapement, a movement function selector, and a champlevé grand feu enamel dial.

Only 10 pieces are made per year, according to von Gunten. This 42.5 mm 18 ct white gold watch gets a tourbillon at 6 o'clock, a function selector. As the winding of the watch is done via the bezel, wearers can wind the watch with 60 turns and get a 1,000-hour power reserve. At 12 o'clock, the timepiece gets a large wheel, known as the wheel of time, the gear train under a central bridge with four pillars.

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A. Lange & Söhne - Lange 31

The Lange 31 by A. Lange & Söhne starts off with a month-long power reserve via Calibre L034.1. This timepiece was introduced in 2017, albeit as a limited boutique edition of 100 pieces. Based on the iconic Lange 1, the Lange 31 uses a single barrel with two very strong springs inside. At a combined length of 370 cm, it provides a running time of 744 hours in total, when fully wound, which adds up to 31 days. Wearers are given a special tool to wind the watch through the caseback as the strength of the springs makes it impossible to use the crown.

The barrel can be seen protruding from underneath the German silver three-quarter bridge. This 45.9 mm white gold watch comes with a solid silver, grey dial with a semicircle power reserve indicator from 2 o'clock to 4 o'clock. At 9:30, the watch has a dual date window and there is a second subdial at 6 o'clock. The crown is only used for setting the time.

Bovet Fleurier Virtuoso VIII Chapter Two

The Virtuoso VIII elegantly blends BOVET’s two iconic cases, the Fleurier and the Dimier, since it is the first timepiece in the Fleurier collection to feature an inclined crystal aperture on the 12-6 o’clock axis. The two elegant arms over the flying tourbillon are rounded-off and polished, and the surfaces of the bridges on both sides are decorated with circular Côtes de Genève motifs.

Offered as a limited edition of 50 timepieces, the seconds’ display is carefully designed to be showcased by an index screwed onto the cage wheel. The arrow of the index hangs over the surface of the dial showing the 60 seconds. There are two big discs, from 2 o'clock to 3 o'clock for the date window and from 9 o'clock to 10 o'clock for the 240-hour or 10-day power reserve indication. The watchmakers also did not forget the date correction, which does not even require removing the timepiece from one’s wrist and is performed simply by pressing down the crown. There is a rapid date corrector at the 12 o’clock positioning of the crown.

Hublot x Takashi Murakami MP-15 Tourbillon

With just 50 pieces available, the MP-15 is the first limited-edition Hublot watch with a central flying tourbillon. Positioned at the centre, it shares space with a sapphire flower motif, a creation of renowned artist Takashi Murakami. Time is indicated by peripheral hands passing beneath the tourbillon cage. The 42 mm polished sapphire crystal case watch remains legible, with 12 white indices on the flange, the black-plated hands with SuperLumiNova, and easy winding with a crown at 3 o’clock.

The HUB9015 hand-wound flying central tourbillon has a power reserve of 150 hours or around seven days. For complete winding, Hublot supplies a special stylus that is charged via a USB port. It is placed on the crown to wind it gently and easily with 100 revolutions until the two barrels that drive the central tourbillon are fully wound. The watch doesn’t have any top bridge.