June 11, 2019

TO THE MOON AND BACK

by AHMED SEDDIQI & SONS

Lift your head to the skies with a celestially inspired luxury wristwatch

Before they made watches, watchmakers were star gazers, which goes some way to explaining why even now watch companies remain captivated by the moon and the cosmos beyond. Today’s Ahmed Seddiqi & Sons collection is filled with star-studded watches, some showing the phases of the moon, others simply inspired by the poetic romance of our solar system and beyond. Here are a few examples that will take you to the moon and back.

Rolex Day-Date 40

Rolex’s collection of mainstays may not change much (why try and put right what isn’t wrong?), but within those familiar families there are countless iterations. One of the more adventurous configurations of the Day-Date 40 is that with a grey meteorite dial, a feature that sends the traditional watch’s look into a different orbit. Add in 10 baguette-cut diamond hour markers and a baguette-diamond set bezel, and the whole picture becomes starrier still. Behind these adornments are a platinum case and President bracelet (first seen at the collection’s launch in 1956), and Rolex’s Calibre 3255, a bulletproof unit that carries no fewer than 14 patents. Part of Rolex’s new generation of movements, it promises a class-leading combination of precision, power reserve (70 hours), resistance to shocks and magnetism, ease of use, and reliability.

Hublot Classic Fusion Aerofusion Moonphase King Gold

Hublot’s take on traditional complications never suffers from understatement. Here, the Swiss manufacturer has surrounded a classic moon phase complication in lashings of its King Gold, a material it developed to be even redder than standard rose or red gold. Just as striking is the look of the watch’s skeletonised dial, where the traditional disc covering the movement has been removed to reveal what lies beneath. Together, the two initially obscure the watch’s advanced functionality – this is a full calendar watch, complete with day, date, month and moon phase indications. But then that’s typical Hublot. The company has become one of the world’s most powerful watch brands over the last decade by taking the traditional and subverting it with bold aesthetics.

Bovet Amadéo Fleurier 43 Meteorite

The clever thing about Bovet’s Amadéo is its conversion system, using which it can be transformed from wristwatch to table clock to pocket watch to pendant watch with a few simple twists and clicks. So simple in fact that you don’t need a tool, or to bring it back into store to be adjusted. This model features a 43mm white gold case and a shiny black enamel dial. The watch is powered by an automatic movement with a 72-hour power reserve, as indicated on the dial.

F.P. Journe Octa Lune

In most cases, moon phase indications are built into watch dials as a sort of information subcategory. Time functions take precedence, with secondary consideration made for further complications and indications. F.P. Journe, one of the leading independent Swiss watchmakers, offers a different solution with this 40mm platinum-cased Octa Lune, carving up the watch’s four displays and giving each its own space. The net result is a highly legible dial. Those four displays are the time in hours, minutes and seconds; a large digital date; a retrograde 120-hour power reserve indicator; and a moon phase. If the dial is fascinating, so too is the automatic movement, which is made of sumptuous 18-carat rose gold.

De Bethune DB25 Starry Varius

The unearthly creations that come out of the De Bethune workshop have been casting a cosmic spell over watch collectors since the early part of this century. The brand sees itself as a 21st century watch artist, interpreting classical techniques with a sort of poetic modernism. So the watches look at once traditional and space-age. That’s certainly true of the DB25 Starry Varius, a 42mm piece with a Grade 5 titanium case that carries the independent company’s signature structural look. The centrepiece, though, is its deep blue dial depicting the stars of the Milky Way. These are produced using a painstaking laser beam micro-milling process and then gilded with 24-carat gold leaf. Gold hour and minute hands hover over this tableau, making their seamless progress around the dial like satellites skimming across the night sky. Inside it is De Bethune’s spaceship-style hand-wound calibre, which comes loaded with the company’s own shock-absorbing system and a six-day power reserve.

RJ Arraw Two-Face

DC Comics on a series of collaborations, which is where this Arraw Two-Face slots into the collection. Batman fans will recognise the name of the villainous Two-Face, Gotham City’s former good-guy district attorney who turned bad after he was left scarred by an acid attack. His fractured look has been passed onto the watch. Its Grade 5 titanium case is half circular satin-brushed and half distressed (an effect produced with a laser-engraving technique); its dial is half skeletonised so you can see the watch’s inner workings (à la Two Face); and the leather strap is part smooth and part roughed up. The final touch is a rotating small seconds disc at 9 o’clock in the form of the coin Two-Face flips when making life and death decisions. The overall effect is rather lunar, appropriate given the other-worldly nature of Two-Face’s story. Only 100 pieces will be made.