A watch function beyond displaying hours, minutes and seconds, such as a calendar, chronograph or second time zone.
A complication is any function other than the indication of hours, minutes and seconds, whatever the movement or its winding. The main families are astronomical indications, such as the date, moon phase and perpetual calendar, which handles unequal months and leap years by itself; the measurement of short times, such as the chronograph and split-seconds; time zones; and chimes, such as the minute repeater, which strikes the time on demand. Some have nothing to do with time: a barometer, compass or altimeter.
The term is also used more broadly for mechanisms such as a tourbillon, which adds no separate time display. The Fondation Haute Horlogerie counts tourbillons and self-winding systems as complications although they fall outside the basic definition, so a complication is not always something the wearer reads on the dial.
In job listings
Complications appear across the watch business. In movement design and engineering roles, the work is developing complicated movements; in production and after-sales service, it is assembling and servicing them; in case workshops, it is making and finishing their cases. Boutique roles for watch specialists use it too, where selling complicated watches is part of the role. See current roles that mention complications.
