March 19, 2024

Often featured in ladies’ watches, the moon-phase complication reproduces the lunar cycle in a miniature version. It generally appears as a disk or aperture. This function serves to keep track of full moons, new moons as well as when the moon is waxing or waning. A fascinating complication that gives a good reason for having your head in the stars !

Our selection of eight ladies’ moon phase watches :

As we’ve seen with all the Lange Double Split, there is not one, but two column wheels at the motion. As you can see on the picture above, this column wheel is directly connected to the 2 arms that control the dividing (or rattrapante) function: a few extremely finicky geometrics come to play to stop and give up the wheel linked to one of both principal chronograph seconds hands. The other column throughout the movement (the one to the left on the image below) serves as a normal chronograph function’s column wheel, responsible for stopping and starting the chronograph itself.There are simple movements that amaze with their completing and you will find not-so-amazingly completed complex movements that amaze with their mind-boggling layout. The Tourbograph merges both and produces a watch that’s a sensual overload using a window onto a world where stunning surface decorations and treatments match with a few of the challenging geometrics and interactions of components.It is filigree and yet rugged in a way few motions with ~700 components are. All the components appear to have substantial quantity to them, almost begging the question why so many other movements we see incorporate fragile-looking little springs and cams inside their design. The Tourbograph resembles a beautifully decorated machine which dwarfs other movements.Hidden deep within the bowels of this L133.1 is a fusée and chain transmission system, designed to ensure a more even delivery of torque because the mainspring unwinds over its short, 36-hour power reserve — 36 hours is indeed short, however a shorter than average power book isn’t exactly unusual among such outrageously complicated movements. The chain itself is 636 components, but Lange counts it as one (yes, one) component from the 684 component count of the motion itself.

A. Lange & Söhne – Little Lange 1 Moon Phase
The guilloché silvered gold dial of this model is swept over by hours and minutes hands and enlivened by a power-reserve indicator, a large date with jumping numerals and an astronomical complication composed of two golden moons. CHF 39’300.–

Breguet – Classique Phases de Lune Dame 9088
While the hours and minutes are indicated by open-tipped hands, the small seconds hand at 6 o’clock turns around the moon-phase aperture bearing a smiling moon. CHF 28’000.–

Girard-Perregaux  – Cat’s Eye Celestial
Directly connected to the barrel, this extremely precise moon-phase complication immediately draws the gaze to the appealing motherof- pearl and aventurine dial center that lends a supremely elegant touch to this watch displaying the hours and minutes. CHF 44’800.–

Zenith – Elite Lady Moonphase
This creation with its turquoise lacquered dial features leaf-type hour and minute hands, small seconds at 9 o’clock, along with a moon-phase complication at 6 o’clock composed of a star-studded midnight blue disk. CHF 7’400.–

Parmigiani Fleurier – Tonda Métropolitaine Sélène Galaxy
This entirely hand-decorated watch is equipped with Delta-shaped openworked hands revealing the midnight blue aventurine dial, small seconds at 6 o’clock, a date disk and a pink (April) moon featuring a surface dotted with craters (referred to as “lunar seas”). CHF 16’100.–

Bulgari – Lvcea Moonphase
Playing on the day/night contrast, this timepiece displays the moon phases through an aperture shaped like the arc of a circle and appearing in the upper part of the dial that is swept over by hours and minutes hands. CHF 15’000.–

Jaeger-Lecoultre – Rendez-Vous Moon Medium
This timepiece displaying hours, minutes and seconds has been meticulously crafted by the artisans of the Manufacture who have applied a sandblasted finish to the midnight blue moon disk and a guilloché motif to the dial center, in order to give a realistic touch to this complication. CHF 15’800.–

Bovet – Recital 11 Miss Alexandra
The artisans of the Manufacture have opted for an unconventional design with a fixed moon to indicate the lunar phases, while the hours and minutes hands form a heart every 60 minutes in the 6 o’clock subdial. CHF 43’000.–

 To see the pictures of our selection of watches, clic on the link “View the gallery”.