While we recently featured a watch with a moonphase indicator, that one relied on a simple hand display. Today’s watch, from Arnold & Son, actually features a photo-realistic representation of the moon.
As I mentioned, the watch comes from Arnold & Son, a British watch company that traces it’s history back to the 1700s. The specific model I’m bringing to your attention today is the True Moon (Ref. 1TMAS.U03A.C42B). As you can see, the moonphase display is in it’s customary spot at 6 o’clock.
What’s different here, is that rather than a pictogram showing us the phases, you get a display that is very much like what you’re going to see in the sky (provided you’re in the northern hemisphere). Additionally, this display has a claimed accuracy of 1 day in 125 years. They’ve done this by timing the display to a 29 day, 12 hour and 44 minute cycle, which matches what the moon actually goes through.
Past this rather cool complication (both in terms of style and calculation), you’ve got normal time keeping functions, large center seconds hand, and a date display at 3 o’clock. All of this is driven by an in-house automatic movement (A1788 caliber) that features 28,800 BPH and a 42 hour power reserve.
The case itself, made from steel, houses a domed AR-coated sapphire crystal up front, and a flat sapphire crystal in the caseback. Under that top crystal you of course have the dial, which features an engraved earth, as well as a smattering of diamonds to represent stars. Last, but not least, you also have 50m water resistance. Surprising, given the style of the watch, but welcome.
Of course, these are all moot for many of us. While I couldn’t pin down an exact price, it seems this particular piece goes for something north of $10k. Given that, we may just need to admire it from afar – much like the moon itself.
