Must have complication

I dont mind a time only watch, but i do love most complications! They add alot to a watch depending on what it is.

I only like date windows when they are done right and compliment the rest of the watch. I would much rather have a no date watch than have a date display at 3:00 or 4:30. 6:00 is the sweet spot for me 👍

It shows time...

I really don't need anything else

But while traveling, I do appreciate GMT function

No, there isn’t one. I don’t mind it if it’s there and doesn’t take away the aesthetics of the rest of the watch. If I wanted complications, I’d use my Apple Watch or a Casio.

Is there a good reason why all date windows aren’t at 6:00? You’d think watch designers lose their minds when they see the asymmetry of the dial when the date is anywhere else.

I’ve defo come round to the 4:30 more recently.

I find smart watches to distracting. I had to stop using my Apple Watch because I spent my whole life looking at it for notifications. I did like being able to ask questions to my wrist though. Felt very sci-fi.

Same here, I have an Apple Watch and barely wear it, partially because it’s a Series 1 and the battery life is atrocious and it doesn’t support the latest software updates. There’s no issues with that on analog or even digital watches.

Variety is the spice of life. Some days I feel like the clean simplicity of a two hand time only watch and other days something really complicated. The most complications I have in one watch is a triple calendar moonphase chronograph and I don't find that overwhelming. I have a particular soft spot for moonphases.

There's not a must have complication for me, more there's a 'must not have' of too many complications on the same watch.

I kind of like the idea of having different things on different watches, at least as far as mechanical watches are concerned.

Having said all of that I fancy picking myself up an A168 for a nice cheap beater, but it's a different animal isn't it?

Most of my watches have a date complication, except my vintage piece, which it doesn’t. I catch myself wanting to look at what the day’s date is a couple of times a day every time I’m wearing that watch. So I guess a date is near-indispensable for me.

If i want complications, i just slap on the apple watch... other than that, i love my chronos(iwc, breitling, casios, timex, etc) day/dates (rollie, seikos, cartier, etc)..

3 hands and hour and minute makers in some shape or form - then it can work as a tool to tell the time to the second and I’m happy.

Give me a date or give me greatness, ideally both!

I try and try to never buy watches without dates, as it’s incredibly helpful in my daily life. Several times a day I write a date on a legally important document and not needing to fig for a phone to double check is invaluable

Now, I do break my own rules on that occasionally…

My Zodiac, my Grand Mori Kurono, and my incoming Horage all sadly lack a date.

But they need some other powerful draw to overcome that shortcoming:

‘Just keep swimming’ tattoo on caseback

Hand made urushi tree sap dial from Kyoto :

…And the Horage has a hand made Swiss silicon tourbillon

Lastly - date location doesn’t matter to me, if done well. 3, or 4:30 or 6 … all date positions are great, but no cyclops over a date, looks awful!!

I really like a date complication for everyday (and genuinely make use of it) but it's not a deal-breaker. The complication that I really like (and really miss when I don't have it) is power reserve. My Tudor North Flag is the only auto I have with PR but it's massively reassuring and keeps that watch in regular rotation.

Yes, the cyclops is a problem. The new reissue Nivada Grenchen Antarctic Diver looks great... except for that cyclops. I think I'd be constantly wiping the sapphire trying to get that blob of rainwater off...

I don‘t really need complications but after seeing the new Moonphase Manual from Farer i could change my mind.

In the 21st century any complication isn’t really a must have unless you’re like part of the one or two percent who actually needs some tool function and can’t, for some reason, use a phone. It’s all “want” or “would be cool” to have vs need to have.

That said . . . If I don’t want to be connected to a distracting smartphone?

It’s nice to have a GMT or Worldtimer for travel

It’s nice to have a day/date for filling out forms and figuring out schedules

It’s nice to have some kind of timer for teaching situations or, you know, timing burns in your lunar module . . .

I'm highly unlikely to buy a watch without a date, I find it to be an extremely useful thing to have.

I don't particularly care where the date is located, as long as it's integrated into the design well, and no indexes have been removed.

Time would be nice. Hours and minutes. Seconds are a plus i don't really need. Well opticlly no date watches are just the "cleanest" with no cut in the dial and i really prefer that. Most of my watches have a date and i don't mind it, but i prefer no date. Hours and minutes that's it for me.

Yes the date is important. I also like chronograpgh complications. I am searching for a automatic watch with a powerreserve indicator done tastefully. Do you guys have any tips?

I get why people complain about the look of a date complication, and symmetry etc, but that’s really ‘watches as jewellery’ rather than their function. Personally, I never remember the date, or sometimes the day, and given a watches function — to act as a pin in a temporal map that says ‘you are here’ then a calendar is a fundamental part of that. I like the way my ecodrive has a perpetual calendar that will even show me the month if I ask it. (As indeed do digitals)

After that, the complications are not about ‘you are here’ (along with everyone else) so much as performing a different task, and while chronos and alarms are related and useful they are not quite so fundamental or integral. In some ways the tracking aspects of smart watches are more true to the function of a watch, but it is tracking our movement through the day, rather than showing us where we are in relation to earth and sun. Both those and things like chronos are more personal, and when someone asks for the time, that shows how the function of a watch is universal.

I suppose after calendar complications, 24hr/daylight complications, and lunar phase are all in that quasi-integral ‘pin on the map of time’ function, if slightly less necessary in the western world and culture we inhabit.

Yes there is a certain complication. Its every Friday and Saturday usually, and it called Wine O'clock. Usually around 8pm but this can vary.

Date is important to me unless it's a strictly dress watch. GMT is good for travelling or if dealing regularly with overseas. If I need to time something I use my phone so chronographs are just clutter on the dial and my eyesight is not what it used to be.

At work I'm wearing a Casio Waveceptor with all the bells ant whistles( radio controlled, chronograph, alarm, tough movement, date), not required, but I am using most of the complications daily. When travelling, a Casio Oceanus because it's super easy to change time zones. On my days of, whatever looks better to my eyes on that day, regardles of complications...

I’m starting to think i should buy more bracelets cuz pretty much all of the time functions and complications on a watch are non-essential, so i’m really just using it as a bracelet.

date complication? don’t get me started. i hate dates. just one more thing to set.

minutes? meh…how accurate do i really need to be?

maybe the only essential is the hour hand then. if that can even be considered a “complication”.

give me a clean dial with hour indices and an hour hand and i’m all good. everything else is superfluous.

of course…my opinions on this changes from week to week. next week i’ll see a picture of a beautiful Patek or Lange movement and i’ll be like “oooo, a perpetual calendar is essential”

This Kyoto could sway me. That’s a beautiful watch.

Yup - hear you on the Nivada! I've ruled out lots of watches, even my fave Seikos, for the exact same reason.

Thank goodness for Seiko it comes and goes as a design, some watches get cyclopsed but the ones I get 100% don't

And on an 800 lb gorilla note: it astounds me everyday that virtually all Rolexes with dates have that awful huge warping blob syrup on the crystal. As you say, looks like it needs a tissue to be wiped off. And yet people will murder each other for a Rolex. 🤯Wonder if Rolex will ever try making more date watches without that blob? Hope not or I may start to like more.😕

Next time in Kyoto I'm going to track down her studio!! I've done some detective work and think I know exactly where. Getting a pic with her would be cool.

Yup, I love my complications - date, power reserve, or a tourbillon (I don't have that yet, but it's a complication I think is cool) ... but a great dial is one reason I'll make an exception!

Most of my watches are time only out of preference, but my favorite complication is moonphase for sure. Perpetual calendar too but that’s next level haha

Oh man some of the high end watch complications I love. The resonance watches (especially the Haldimann H2) and dead beat seconds with Foudroyante.

I received one of my favorite complications recently (retrograde seconds).