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The Watches

Chronoswiss Debuts Celestial-Themed Collection

Chronoswiss premiers its new Space Timer collection with two models, the Space Timer Moonwalk and the Space Timer Jupiter.

Both 44mm steel models echo the Lucerne-based watchmaker’s Open Gear regulator series, with its hour display hand at 12 o’clock, prominent central minutes hand, a visible gear train (with massive skeltonized  bridge) and the trademark Chronoswiss onion crown.

The new Chronoswiss Space Timer Moonwalk.

But these new Space Timer models differ from the Open Gear series with a celestial theme that replaces the retrograde seconds hand with a large moon phase and date sub-dial.  

For the Moonwalk model, Chronoswiss naturally emphasizes that moon-phase display, crafting it from titanium and placing tiny steel beads around the sundial as date markers, set between Arabic numerals.

The hour and date disks are both made of ITR2, a new-generation carbon nanotube-based material that Chronoswiss says is eight times lighter than steel and can be polished, sandblasted, painted or satin finished. 

Here, the watchmaker has partially skeletonized the hour display in part to “create the illusion that time – the day, the moon, the stars – seem to float in the interstellar void.”

Chronoswiss also developed a hand-crafted guilloche ‘Moonwalk’ pattern to decorate the dial. When the large SuperLuminova cylindrical markers (and even the luminous hands) throw light on that rolling, zigzag guilloché pattern, the resulting reflections recall the sun’s reflections on moon’s surface.

All the skeletonized hands, including the red date indicator, are powered by the ETA-based Chronoswiss C.308 automatic movement, visible via the sapphire back and displaying an oscillating weight finished with a Cote de Geneve.

Gassy Jupiter 

Instead of a patterned guilloche dial, the Chronoswiss Space Timer Jupiter shines with a laser-sculpted dial with a nano-print finish designed to mimic the sandy hues and drifting gases of the massive planet.

The new Chronoswiss Space Timer Jupiter.

And unlike the blue ITR2 date disk found on the Moonwalk, the Planet Jupiter offers a translucent ITR2 disk that, as on the Moonwalk, is set with tiny steel ‘micro-planets.’ A sand-colored titanium sphere illuminates the moon phase, matching the larger dial.

The Chronoswiss Space Timer Jupiter is also powered by the ETA-based Chronoswiss C.308 automatic caliber.  

Chronoswiss is inaugurating its Space Timer collection with both the Space Timer Jupiter and the Space Timer Moonwalk, each as a limited edition of fifty. Each new model is priced at $17,100.

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Arnold & Son Perpetual Moon Shines With Diamonds

Arnold & Son expands its much-heralded Perpetual Moon collection with a new edition that features a brilliant blue mother-of-pearl dial shimmering within a new, diamond-set 38mm red gold case. And while this addition to the collection features the Swiss watchmaker’s smallest caliber, it powers one of the larger moonphase displays available.

The new Arnold & Son Perpetual Moon 38 Gold Moonlight.

The new Arnold & Son Perpetual Moon 38 Gold Moonlight features a richly decorated evening sky dial framed with a diamond-set bezel that echoes more diamonds used as hour-markers and on the crown and lugs.

All told, you’ll find 138 diamonds (2.61 carats) glittering on the watch, reflecting light that complements the SuperLuminova-set moon, made more realistic with hand-painted shadows. The Ursa Major and Cassiopeia constellations complete the scene nearby.

The Arnold & Son manual-wind caliber A&S1612 inside the collection is the watchmaker’s smallest, measuring 29.4 mm in diameter so that it perfectly fits the watch’s new 38mm by 10.44mm case.

The beautifully finished manually wound movement, smaller than the A&S1512 found inside the 42mm Perpetual Moon series, still packs a impressive technical punch with a power reserve of ninety hours. And like those larger movements, the new model also boasts accuracy for 122 years – if the watch is kept wound.

Price: $50,300.

 

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Ulysse Nardin Celebrates Lunar New Year With Blast Moonstruck

Timed to coincide with the start of the lunar New Year on February 1, Ulysse Nardin has launched a new black ceramic ‘Blast’ version of its Moonstruck astronomical complication.

The Ulysse Nardin Blast Moonstruck

This newest Moonstruck is a direct descendant of the Tellurium moonphase complication watchmaker and engineer Ludwig Oechslin created for Ulysse Nardin in 1992 as part of a trilogy of astronomical watches. And like that watch and subsequent Moonstruck models, the new, very contemporary Blast Moonstruck is meant to depict the rotation of the sun and moon as well as related astronomical events and measurements such tidal times, world time and of course local time and date.

The new Moonstruck maintains the collection’s centrally located depiction of the Earth as seen from North Pole. But for this Blast version, Ulysse Nardin has micro-engraved the continents and set them inside a sapphire crystal box encircled by a rose gold ring. That ring is engraved with the thirty-one days of the month to indicate the days.

A hyper-accurate moonphase indicator, using a realistic depiction of the Moon, shows the Moon’s position in relation to the sun, which Ulysse Nardin artisans have created from bronzite, a mineral rarely used in watchmaking. Even more impressive, the Moon display changes to appear a little brighter or dimmer in line with the lunar calendar.

Pushers on the left-hand side of the case allow the user to adjust the main time display forward or back to adjust to another time zone.

Worldtime is indicated via city names placed around the dial, as is often seen in traditional world time watches. While the hands can indicate the local time, they can also be set to any other time zone or to any one of the twenty-four time zones that corresponding to the city noted on the fixed flange.

Not surprisingly, Ulysse Nardin allows the wearer a particular ease at changing time zones. For years, the watchmaker has utilized a mechanism for changing the hour hand on its dual-time watches via two-pushers, here located on the left side of the case.

Ulysse Nardin’s own dial-making division has created a night-sky for the Blast Moonstruck on a disk made of aventurine.

Ulysse Nardin explains that the watch’s myriad settings can be set and adjusted using the crown.

“Manufacture caliber UN-106 subsequently manages all the displays on its own as long as the watch is worn, “ according to the watchmaker. “And when it isn’t, it just needs to be put back in the box supplied, which contains an automatic winder designed to take care of the winding and keep its calendar information accurate.”

The Ulysse Nardin Blast Moonstruck is a multi-level 45mm watch in black ceramic and black DLC-treated titanium. It can be worn on a black alligator, black velvet or black rubber strap. Price: $73,900 (limited production).

Specifications: Ulysse Nardin Blast Moonstruck

(Reference 1063-400-2A/3A)

Movement: Automatic UN-106 Manufacture caliber, 335 components, 28,800 vph. Power reserve of 50 hours.

Functions and displays: Hours, minutes, date, moon phase indication, days of lunar month, tidal coefficients, worldtimer, dual time, positions of the sun and moon around the globe.

Case: 45mm black ceramic, black DLC titanium, sapphire crystal on front and back, rose gold oscillating weight, 30 meters of water resistance.

Strap: Black alligator, velvet, or rubber with folding clasp, black DLC titanium and pink gold clasp.

Price: $73,900 (limited production)

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Arnold & Son Celebrates Chinese New Year

Arnold & Son celebrates the traditional Chinese New Year with a limited edition moon phase watch that beautifully illustrates the Year of the Water Tiger, which begins on February 1.

The watchmaker’s Year of the Tiger Perpetual Moon sports a stunning dial depicting a golden tiger standing near a river and lit by a brilliant mother-of-pearl moon. Hematite and aventurine sparkle as the tiger and a luminous, hand-painted waterfall set the scene.

The new Arnold and Son Perpetual Moon Year of the Tiger.

Arnold & Son’s large moonphase display, already one of the most impressive such displays available from a Swiss watchmaker, here brilliantly reveals the waxing and waning of our satellite with hand-painted relief and a generous coating of SuperLuminova.

During the daytime, the moon takes on a grey tint, while in the dark it glows from the center, contrasting nicely with the adjacent deep black aventurine glass.

Arnold & Son artisans sculpted a rose gold tiger with hand-engraved and hand-burnished fur to highlight the remaining portion of the dial. The nearby bamboo is painted in gold powder on a hematite disc, which displays with glittering inclusions.

Inside Arnold & Son places its own A&S1512 manual-wind caliber, created with two barrels, a frequency of 3 Hz and a terrific ninety-hour power reserve.

Finally, Arnold & Son fits a black alligator strap backed with red alligator leather and stitched with platinum thread to the 42mm red-gold “Year of the Tiger” Perpetual Moon. A limited edition of eight, the watch is priced at CHF 52,900 (approximately $57,695).

 

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Meistersinger Darkens Stratoscope

One of our favorite moon phase watches, the Meistersinger Stratoscope, is set to release its darkest model yet.

Announced a few weeks ago, and now ready for delivery, this younger and slightly larger cousin of the excellent Meistersinger Astroscope hits the ether (and stores) with a limited edition model bathed in a rugged diamond-like carbon (DLC) coating. The Meistersinger Stratoscope debuted earlier this year in a steel case with a more traditional sunburst blue and black dial.

The one-handed 43mm watch displays a large, luminescent moon phase using a photorealistic image of our sole natural satellite. Around the lunar image we see Meistersinger’s characteristic double-digit numerals 01 to 12, divided into fifteen-minute increments.

 

The Meisteringer Stratoscope is now available (in a limited edition) with an all-black dial and case.

For this new Black Line Edition, limited to twenty pieces, the moon rotates across a very dark night sky, which is framed by an equally dark black diamond-like carbon (DLC) case. The moon and time display glow in the dark.

Inside Meistersinger utilizes its Sellita-based automatic MS Luna movement to calculate the time and the moonphases. In theory, this moon phase indicator only requires a slight adjustment after 122 years.

Price: 3,990 euros, or about $4,600.

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