Introducing the Hulsman Easy Perpetual Watch: A Simplified Perpetual Calendar Innovation

It’s not every day we get to learn about and share news on potentially groundbreaking new watchmaking concepts. But today, we have something very special lined up, and what’s even more satisfying, it’s Dutch-made! Self-taught watchmaker Machiel Hulsman is presenting his latest concept watch, stepping away from uniquely engineered and crafted bespoke pieces. While it still only exists digitally, his first-ever serially produced Hulsman watch doesn’t let down one bit in terms of ingenuity, as it comes with a virtually foolproof QP movement. Join us as we shed first light on the new Hulsman Easy Perpetual.

The Perpetual Calendar complication is one of the holy grails in watchmaking, a hugely complex one to master, sure to test even the most skilled and experienced watchmakers around. Historically, the first portable QP timekeeper is credited to Thomas Mudge, who created the No. 525 pocket watch in 1762. As technology progressed, others improved on Mudge’s concept or developed their own. The first wrist-worn QP’s didn’t come into reality until 1925, when Patek Philippe introduced the reference 97975, with a modified Victorin Piguet movement. Breguet also plays along in this realm of complexity, as it is credited with creating the first perpetual calendar movement designed specifically for a wrist watch with the reference 2516. Although the history is far denser and more complex than this short rundown, we’ll leave it at that for now. There are plenty of more details to find here, for those interested!

But what makes up a Perpetual Calendar, or in French, a Quantiéme Perpetual (or QP) watch? Simply put, it should not only display time, but also feature a calendar complication with the day of the week, the date, the month, the leap year and possibly a moonphase. It should take into account the length of the months and adjust according if one has 30 or 31 days, and even February’s 29 days without needing corrections. Some brands take the liberty of omitting one or two of these indications, but in essence, they function the same.

So, how does the Hulsman Perpetual Calendar differ? In terms of functions, it doesn’t. Yet in terms of construction, display and above all, setting and reliability, it should be a big step forward! For starters, a perpetual calendar movement is notoriously fragile and challenging to keep running exactly. It often needs multiple correctors to adjust for the date or the day of the week, should you have let it run out of power for any length of time. There’s also the potential risk of needing professional help, in other words, a watchmaker, to set it up properly again. Some solutions through crowns and correctors in the caseband help for sure, but it’s pretty much always a hassle.

The Hulsman Easy Perpetual doesn’t need any of this! It uses a rather compact and clever configuration of parts to not only get rid of any correctors, but it even simplifies things to the point you only need to set up the correct date, and the rest will follow automatically! The system even prevents mis-settings between the date and time setting positions in the crown, preventing damage to the movement in the process. So that’s the fragility covered it seems, but how about the ease of setting?

As explained by Machiel, the crown has three positions. The first is for winding, and goes one way only. The second one is for setting time, which can be done both ways. The third and final position is for the calendar setting, which can also be done in both directions, with one full turn of the crown moving the date forward or backwards by 4 positions. A special system ensures the date is set correctly. If not, it will not leave the setting position when the crown is pushed back. It’s also not possible to move from the setting back to the winding position when the date is not set up correctly (midway between two dates). That means no more cumbersome corrections through either recessed pushers or the crown, and in theory, you can give it to your 8-year-old without the worry of him or her breaking it or messing up the indications.

The in-house developed manually wound movement comes with several other clever functions and features, too. It uses specially developed prisms to vertically project the day of the week and month indications in the caseband, while also showing the inverted discs from the front. The pointer date indication in the outer periphery jumps past these windows from the 4th to the 5th and then from the 7th to the 8th.

Then there’s a pair of apertures at the top, with a day/night indication on the right, and a special winding indicator on the left. This turns orange and then red towards the end of the movement’s power reserve, signalling it needs to be wound again. What’s also a very nice touch is the sapphire balance wheel bridge, making the balance wheel seemingly float in air. Around the back, you will find the leap year indication to complete the QP displays.

All this is fitted into a surprisingly compact case of 39mm in diameter and 9.5mm in height, with hollow lugs and made out of white, red or yellow gold. The dial is built up with multiple elements, with the centre-most section being customizable. You can have it finished with a guilloché pattern, made out of transparent or tinted sapphire, opt for a slice of meteorite or natural stone and so on. The outer ring, here finished in blue, can be coloured to your desire. The date numerals can also be altered, should you want to, making the watch even more personal. The signature styled hour and minute hands, already seen on the Marie-Elise and the Tourbillon. And yes, you’ve guessed it, they can be heat-annealed to any colour available in the spectrum (blue, purple, yellow, brown, etc).

The Hulsman Easy Perpetual comes in a series of just 12 pieces, all offered through a ‘Montre de Souscription‘ model, so per subscription only. The price is set at EUR 138,000 excl. VAT. This certainly is a huge amount of money, but it promises to be an unprecedented, reliable, easy-to-use and read perpetual calendar! And that’s worth something, of course! For what it’s worth, we’re quite excited to see it in person once it’s finished and to get into detail on how it works, especially that brilliant QP mechanism!

For more information, please visit Hulsman-Timepieces.com.