These New Moonphase Watches Put the Night Sky on Your Wrist
For as long as humans have looked up at the night sky, we have been fascinated by the moon’s phases. As the most prominent celestial body visible from Earth and our closest neighbour, planetarily speaking, the moon’s waxing and waning is the foundation of the modern calendar. As such, timekeeping devices that display the phases of the moon have been around since the fabled Antikythera of Ancient Greece, and remain a popular feature of high-end mechanical watches today. Last year, IWC revealed the Portugieser Eternal Calendar, a limited production model with a price approaching $200,000, whose moonphase display is said to be accurate to no less than 45 million years. Fortunately for anyone else who’s interested in adding a moonphase complication to their collection, it’s far from the only covetable example of the genre released in recent months.
Omega Speedmaster Moonphase Meteorite
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The Omega Speedmaster has been synonymous with the lunar surface ever since it hitched a ride there on the wrists of Apollo 11 astronauts in 1969. That makes a moonphase version of the iconic Swiss chronograph kind of a no-brainer. Omega currently offers more than a dozen variations of the Speedmaster Moonphase to suit any taste, but this year, they’ve taken things several steps further by offering the watch with a dial made from a sliver of earthbound meteorite. More notably, however, its moonphase display consists of a pair of rotating moons cut from a lunar meteorite, making this the first Speedmaster to contain a piece of the actual moon. ($23,300)
Piaget Polo Flying Tourbillon Moonphase
Piaget Polo Flying Tourbillon Moonphase
Piaget Polo Flying Tourbillon Moonphase
Piaget Polo Flying Tourbillon Moonphase
Piaget Polo Flying Tourbillon Moonphase
Piaget Polo Flying Tourbillon Moonphase
Piaget Polo Flying Tourbillon Moonphase
Piaget Polo Flying Tourbillon Moonphase
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Ultra-thin watches and funky 1970s-style watches are Piaget’s two biggest calling cards, and their most special creations tend to combine these characteristics in new ways. Building a tourbillon-powered moonphase display is already quite impressive for any watchmaker, but this being a Piaget joint, it brings a super-slim 9.8 mm-thick case (thanks to the 4mm-thick 642P movement) to the table as well. The case itself is made from titanium, with blue PVD-coated accents, the Maison’s signature gadroons (aka the parallel line motif), and a pleasantly uncluttered dial. To give you a sense of just how serious Piaget is about this movement, the brand assures us that the moonphase complication will be accurate for no less than 122 years, at which point you can adjust the display using the corrector at nine o’clock. ($140,000)
Chopard Lunar One
Chopard Lunar One
Chopard Lunar One
Chopard Lunar One
Chopard Lunar One
Chopard Lunar One
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When you buy a high-end watch, particularly a high-end complication watch, you’re buying a brand’s reputation and philosophy of craft as much as a timepiece. Chopard’s latest evolution of the Lunar One has much to offer on both counts. On one side of the equation is one of Switzerland’s few remaining family-owned maisons, with an impeccable reputation for traditional craftsmanship and a unique aesthetic. On the other is a top-shelf perpetual calendar moonphase with an enticing combination of traditional elements and modern design flourishes. Foremost among these is a hand-guilloché dial with an unusual sunrise pattern that displays the moon’s position in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, as well as key constellations. True to the reputation of Chopard’s L.U.C manufacture, the dual moonphase display is guaranteed to be accurate within a single day for the next 122 years. ($112,500)
