It's not every day a brand celebrates its 175th anniversary but that's exactly what Patek Philippe are doing with the launch of the Grandmaster Chime.

When a luxury brand can say that it is 175 years old, you can guarantee that they are going to celebrate in style and that’s exactly what iconic Swiss watchmakers, Patek Philippe have done. To celebrate their 175th anniversary, the legendary, family owned brand created a series of limited edition, luxury timepieces with the piece de resistance of the collection being the Grandmaster Chime.

One of the most elaborate wristwatches Patek Philippe have ever made, the Grandmaster Chime stands head and shoulders above the rest thanks to the sheer levels of horological complexity. Setting new benchmarks in terms of technical and aesthetic elegance, the Grandmaster Chime marks the start of the "intelligent watch", as envisioned by Patek Philippe’s philosophy.

So what is it about this timepiece that is so special? Firstly, with a diameter of 47mm, there are an enviable handful of functions in such a compact watch. These include a second time zone function, handy for those frequent travellers, an acoustic alarm and a date repeater that sounds the date on demand.

Secondly, the Grandmaster Chime is the brand’s very first ever-double face watch which can be worn one of two ways. Firstly, it can be worn with the dial facing up so that the focus is on the time and sonnerie. The second way of wearing it will be looking at the perpetual calendar. Thanks to clever workmanship and engineering, the faces can be easily inter-changed with the reversing mechanism in the lugs making it extremely versatile.

Of course, undoubtedly, a watch like this doesn't happen overnight. Taking over 100,000 hours of development, production and assembly and with each watch having no fewer than 20 complications and 1,580 parts, this really is a once in a lifetime timepiece.