In anticipation of the upcoming The Hour Lounge dinner here in Singapore, here’s a look at the clever world time from Vacheron Constantin. At SIHH 2011 Vacheron Constantin unveiled a series of small complications, the most interesting of which was the Patrimony Traditionnelle World Time. This is an elaborate, yet clever and easy to understand, Louis Cottier-style world time.

Unlike traditional world timers with time zones adjustable in one hour segments, this can be set to half and quarter hour time zones. These less conventional time zones, locales like Kabul and Yangon, are shown in red on the dial.

Day and night are indicated by a sapphire disc over the world map in the centre, half the disc is tinted grey while the other half is clear – the tinted half indicateds night time. Case diameter is 42.5 mm. While I commend VC for creating an innovative and useful world time, the hands of the watch are not to my taste. They look out of place. But nevertheless this is a cleverly executed variant on a usually unimaginative complication. – SJX