Why watchmakers are obsessed with the lunar cycle

Unlock Editor’s Digest for free

FT editor Roula Khalaf selects her favorite stories in this weekly newsletter.

Time began with the sun and moon: the observed rising and setting of the sun provided the day, the waxing and waning of the moon provided the months, and the sun’s Earth’s orbit provided the year. Thanks to the understanding of the cycle, we begin to anticipate the seasons, the migratory habits of the animals we hunt and then, later, the times in which to sow and harvest.

Things have changed a bit since the Paleolithic. But this year there seems to be something in the spirit of watchmaking that wants to reconnect us with the origins of time. Of all the “conventional” look complications, the moon phase indicator, which shows the waxing and waning of the moon for approximately 29 and a half days through an aperture in the dial, is possibly the least directly useful to the wearer. It may also be the reason I like it.

The moon phase is as much a display of horological self-expression as it is a complication. this year Clocks and wonders At the fair, attention was drawn to the number of brands that presented watches with moon phases. On the more affordable end of things Raymond Weil had the attractive Millesime Automatic Moonphase in denim blue, while Frederique Constant released the Classic Moonphase Date with a green dial.

More rarefied it was Laurent Ferrier‘s Classic Moon, an exquisitely balanced design with the Super-LumiNova full moon and stars to twinkle at night. “I felt like the traditional moon phases were a little sad,” Ferrier says of this twist. “This is more spectacular.”

I felt that the traditional moon phases were a bit sad. this is more spectacular

And how Jaeger-LeCoultre revealed with its Duometre Chronograph Moon, the indicator can be used to great conceptual effect in combination with other complications. “We put in the moon phase to balance the counters on both sides, even if it meant creating a new caliber,” says Catherine Renier, CEO of Jaeger-LeCoultre. But there is more than aesthetic equanimity here; There is a symbolic, almost philosophical quality to pairing the lunar phase, which advances almost imperceptibly, with the frenetic action of the foudroyant who divides each second into six parts with a hand that moves so quickly that it is almost a blur. “There is precision and there is an intellectual dimension,” says Renier. “The slow complication balances the rapid.”

Just because it is not prosaically useful does not follow that it is meaningless. “The moon has appeal in many ways,” says Mike France of the British watch brand. Christopher Ward. “For years, the moon phase was the most requested complication and we didn’t have any.” It now has two: the C1 Moonglow and a new C1 Moonphase released in November. France considers the appeal to be universal. “We associate poetry, romance, mythology and even cartoons with the moon.”

The mention of cartoons immediately brings to mind one of this year’s hottest releases, “Moon Phase Mission,” the latest from the phenomenally successful Omega x Swatch Moonswatch series, in which the gauge shows Snoopy, NASA’s safety ambassador, napping on a crescent moon.

Moon phases are often seen in their most classical form in perpetual calendars, such as the latest Villeret Quantième Perpétuel by Blancpain. Its distinctive moon with human features is considered a symbol of the brand’s rebirth after the quartz crisis, as well as a whimsical response to the inhuman precision of the modern watch.

There are times when your wrist simply isn’t big enough to hold all the lunar information you might need, as was the case with the Berkley, the enormous “pocket” watch with 63 complications made by Vacheron Constantin, in which at 12 o’clock the lunar phase takes first place. But it is its mastery of the intricacies of the Chinese lunisolar calendar that sets this watch apart.

“The lunar calendar is governed by algorithms, which are necessary to take into account all the irregularities of the Chinese calendar,” explains Christian Selmoni, head of style and heritage at Vacheron. “To reconcile the lunar calendar with the solar calendar, you have to add what they call embolistic months every two or three years irregularly during a 19-year cycle. In the end we had to make two mechanisms, one that drove the lunar calendar and another that drove the solar calendar.” (I feel a little less stupid when I learn that it took one of the three watchmakers who made this piece a year to calculate the algorithms and transcribe them into mechanisms to choreograph this astronomical dance.)

Berkley’s moon phase indicator is accurate to over a millennium and requires an adjustment of one day every 1,027 years, which is impressive, but compared to another of this year’s launches it’s nothing more than a walk in the park. lunar foothills.

This year the experts in IWC devised a moon phase reduction gear system, composed of three wheels, that provides a moon phase that will run for 45 million (yes) years before there is a day out of sync with the actual phases of the moon. In such circumstances I think it is permissible to overlook the slight exaggeration of the name: Eternal Calendar. The practical values ​​of such an indicator are not immediately apparent to me, but I suppose humanity has 45 million years to figure it out.