A Watch That Does Everything But Open Your Beer

Originally published by Jack Forster on Hodinkee.

Jaeger-LeCoultre has applied the Hybris Mechanica name to a number of different watches, starting with a trio of highly complicated watches sold as a set, for $2.5 million, in 2009. For several years, JLC followed a number-series naming convention (the 2014 Master Ultra-Thin Minute Repeater Flying Tourbillon, for instance, was launched as Hybris Mechanica 11). Today, however, the company uses the caliber number rather than a series number, and the most recent addition to the Hybris Mechanica collection, launching at Watches & Wonders 2021, is the Hybris Mechanica Calibre 185 Quadriptyque. It's not only the most complicated Reverso ever made, it's one of the most complicated watches Jaeger-LeCoultre has ever made, period – by the company's count, a total of 11 complications.

Perhaps just as important as the sheer complexity of the watch is the effort JLC made to keep it wearable. Highly complicated timepieces can be, and often are, behemoths. An extreme example is the Patek Philippe Caliber 89 pocket watch, which was introduced in 1989 as the world's most complicated timepiece, with 33 complications. It weighs 1.1 kilos, and at 88.2 mm in diameter and 41.07 mm thick, you'd better have deep pockets in every sense. By contrast, the Hybris Mechanica Calibre 185 is just 51mm x 31mm x 15.15mm – for a watch of this complexity, remarkably manageable.