5.3 What's a Perpetual Calendar? How is it different from an Annual Calendar or Triple-Date?

A perpetual calendar is the most developed form of the simple date window on a typical watch. It keeps track of date, day-of-the-week, (sometimes weeks), months, year, leap years, and sometimes even centuries. Because of the relatively complex rules governing the Gregorian calendar, including the varying lengths of months, and leap years every four years, a typical perpetual calendar has wheels turning from several times per second (e.g. balance wheel) all the way to once every four years. Because of the complexity of the Gregorian calendar, some perpetual calendars will require an experienced watchmaker open the watch to make an adjustment at AD 2100, or later (assuming that an experienced watchmaker still exists then). Some less complex calendars are also available:

• Semi-perpetual calendars (e.g. the Breitling Montbrilliant 1461), which requires an adjustment on leap year day only.
• annual calendars (of which the Patek Philippe 5035 is an outstanding example), which only require a user adjustment once every February
• "triple date" calendars, which contain month, day, and date - but need to be manually advanced at the end of each (short) month

Some would say that the inconvenience in resetting the date on a true perpetual calendar is the main reason for the existence of the watch winder.

from timezone.com - great site that covers a lot of the basics

 

thanks from me too...

 

In the Citizen ecodrive range that have the perpetual watch dat/date and chronograph feature (like mine has), the numbers around the dial are allocated for each month of the year ie 1 = jan 2 = feb etc. This is how the watch sets the month of the year when you first set it up. So when you set the calander, its set, as long as you don't let the battery run flat. In the date/day window, these automatically adjust for each month according the leap year you set the watch to. There is also a feature if the watch has it, to set the period of the year the last leap year was, with an incrimentation on a small dial that mine has. I hope this explain how it works for the Citizen Eco chrono's
Very simple and very accurate.

Regards

Paul

 

ok. let's try this... say you buy a CITIZEN THE CITIZEN CTQ57-0932. Let's also say you purchased the watch as a NOS, and the battery is dead upon arrival from Japan. How do you adjust the date on the watch to the correct day, keeping in mind (as far as I can tell) you can't differentiate months and years on the watch ? ? ? Maybe this is a better explanation of what i'm looking for.

 

ok. let's try this... say you buy a CITIZEN THE CITIZEN CTQ57-0932. Let's also say you purchased the watch as a NOS, and the battery is dead upon arrival from Japan. How do you adjust the date on the watch to the correct day, keeping in mind (as far as I can tell) you can't differentiate months and years on the watch ? ? ? Maybe this is a better explanation of what i'm looking for.

I've looked at this model on line. It doesn't appear to be:
1/ an eco drive, so this will mean that it won' have the intelligence of an ecodrive to command an automatic perpetual calander like mine does.
2/ one with a day next to the date, which also means that it will be a manual change for the date when you skip into months that have 30 days or less.
If you are looking for instructions as to how to change the date only, this will be done by unscrewing the crown (if it is a screw down crown), pulling it out until you hear a click and rotating it in the direction which will allow you to adjust the date. Push it back towards the case (screw back down if required) and your done. Unless some else here has more to add, that just about sums it up. My answers are based on the fact that you may not have adjusted a date watch before. I'm hoping I've answered you correctly from what you have asked. Am I right?
If you require more info from Citizen watches, their site also offers manuals on line to explain how to use particular models you may want to purchase.
I hope I've helped?

Regards

Paul

 

Isn´t the perpetual calender in the Citizen´s purely computerized? I doubt something that cheap has the whole mechanical complication.

 

Of course it is an electronic perpetual calendar :-d
However if you have read the posts you would have seen that he was mostly surprised there were no visible indication for month and leap year - but those are there once you know where/how to look ;-)

 

A new The Citizen, bought from a Japanese dealer, will be delivered with the perpetual calendar set to the correct year and date, but it will be the correct Japanese date. All the new owner has to do is change the date by one or possibly two increments.

The Citizen has a flush button on the case at 2 o'clock which has to be pressed to reach the information on what month and which year in the leap-year cycle the watch thinks it is. The instruction book is perfectly clear on both how to access the calendar information and how to make any adjustment that might be required..... and it's not at all difficult. And once set, you don't need to worry about it again until a hundred years hence ...... not something most of us will care about by then.

The Citizen is as close to the "set and forget" watch as you can find. It will need a battery in about ten years and it would make sense to have Mr Citizen service the watch at the same time as he fits a new battery. If your particular example doesn't run within the 5 seconds per year, and if you care about that (I suspect that most owners who subscribe to this forum will care) you can send it back to Citizen for adjustment under warranty. Both of mine have been back and are now running well within the spec.

They aren't cheap but they are superlative watches, beautifully made and finished and, in my opinion, extremely handsome.

 

"First of all - use the search around here and then Google for really easy questions
You could for instance see
http://translate.google.com/translat...ml&sl=ja&tl=en
Generally the simple-looking perpetual-calendars have a way to show month and leap year (for most Citizen models it is with the crown out at the first click) and with very few exceptions also a way to set it."

THANK YOU CATALIN!

I am unfamiliar with this watch, and was curious as to HOW you adjust the correct day, month and year, if there is no indication of day month and year. But apparently there is. I just missed the fact that there is an actual indicator for these. I suppose now it's obvious now that unless there was some kind of indicator, you wouldn't be able to get the correct date.

 

Glad I could help ;-)

That is among the highest-level quartz you can get and the one with the highest guaranteed accuracy. Also at 10 years the standard-production watch with the longest warranty (quartz or non-quartz) - but unfortunately only sold in Japan (for now).

There might also be lower-cost options if you are interested - see my review for two of them at http://caranfil.org/harrison/harrison_legacy.html ... (I also describe there how the month and leap year are read on each one of those).

 

you are my hero Catalin...

 

The perpetual calendar uses the same basic process no matter the maker of the quartz movement. If it is completely dead you have to tell the watch four things: 1. How many years to the next leap year, 2. The month, 3. The day, 4. The time. Once the watch is programmed with that information it simply repeats the same four year cycle of days per month until it hits a leap year then it takes a leap and starts all over again. The movement will repeat that sequence and display the date successfully until the year 2100.

With the Seiko 8F56 the setup is fiddly and a bit klutzy but it works. The Citizen is likely more refined.