Wow! This beautiful watch by Van Cleef & Arpels is part of their Poetic Astronomy series, and is called the Midnight Planétarium. Containing 396 moving parts, it accurately tracks planetary orbits. In case you ever really needed a visual reminder of your location in our little galaxy.
Via the Daily Mail:
Mercury will make a lap around the watch’s face in just 88 days, Venus will require 224, and Earth of does it in one year. Saturn, which is the farthest planet from the sun in the watch, won’t make it back to its starting position for 29.5 years. A shooting star on the outer edge of the watch face indicates the time.
Inspired by planetariums, the movement of the watch was created for Van Cleef & Arpels’ by Dutch watchmaker Christiaan van der Klaauw. The discs are made of aventurine, and each planet is a semiprecious stone.
Mercury is serpentine, Saturn is sugilite, Venus is chloromelanite, Earth is turquoise, Mars is red jasper and Jupiter is blue agate. A rotating rose gold outer rim lets the wearer choose a special day on which the Earth will move under the star engraved in the sapphire crystal.With all those gemstones, and 396 working parts, it comes with a hefty price tag of £185,800. A version with diamond decorations costs £247,700. The watches are available on request from the company.
Ouch! That’s a bit of an investment for a cool watch.