Capturing the Cosmos

Astronomical timepieces display a watchmaker’s horological prowess, allowing us to marvel at what human hands are still capable of.

-  CHARMIAN LEONG

Mechanical watches sit high on the list of things you don’t need but will pay lots of money for. Astronomical complications are perhaps the most superfluous of them. There is no longer a practical need to know what phase the moon is in, much less the difference between solar time and mean time (also known as the equation of time). And yet, millennia after our ancestors first started looking to the stars to make sense of the world, mankind is still captivated by what lies beyond the exosphere.

Still, there’s a reason why watchmakers are still pouring hundreds Still, there’s a reason why watchmakers are still pouring hundreds of hours into designing such unnecessary indications — they are remarkably difficult to make. Astronomical timepieces, like minute repeaters and tourbillons, display a watchmaker’s horological prowess, allowing us to marvel at what human hands are still capable of.

And, of course, there is the undeniable romance of it all. Tracking celestial bodies was a way for people to navigate land and sea, predict harvest times, and measure the ebb and flow of tides. Once those mechanisms were miniaturised into pocket watches in the late 19th century, the quest to shrink them further continued, eventually giving us all a little piece of the universe we can wear on our wrists.

Today, moon phase and calendar complications are common in haute horlogerie. But, a handful of watchmakers still go above and beyond (pun intended) to sate our innate desire to connect with the heavens.