3 Unusual Interesting Watches

3 Unusual Interesting Watches

Now and then I come across a watch that makes me stop and pause, not necessarily because of the aesthetics of the watch but simply because of the sheer brilliance of its design. Here is a list containing 3 of my favourite unusually interesting watches that I’ve come across.

Van Cleef & Arpels Midnight Planétarium

The first watch in the list is one of my favourite watches around at the moment. That reason being because the Midnight Planétarium provides the wearer with a view of an entire solar system on their wrist. Apart from being a stunningly beautiful watch it’s also an astonishing technical achievement, containing over 396 total components that visually follow the orbit of Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn around the Sun. Each planet is represented by a semi-precious gemstone (aventurine, serpentine, chloromelanite, turqoise, red jasper, blue agate and sugilte) sized accordingly that then rotates around a rose gold sun.  The series of planets are constantly arranged accurately to how they will look in space at that point in time, although this is all done through clever gear ratios the final product never fails to amaze me. 

Here is a graph showing the time for a single orbit of each planet:

The Midnight Planétarium follows all of the Planet's listed in real time. The fact that it takes 29 years of wearing the Planétarium to see a single revolution of Saturn fascinates me and that is the magic behind this watch. It is truly a watch that will keep you fascinated for a lifetime.

Seiko Think the Earth WN-1

 

This watch is interesting in so many different ways. First of all and most obviously, it’s a model of the planet Earth at a scale of 1:580 millionth the size of the real globe. This miniature model continuously spins at the rate of the Earth through the entire day; I have no idea how this is done but that mystery is what I like the most about the WN-1. The time is indicated by an orange ball rotating clockwise that indicates the hours and a small needle rotating anti-clockwise for the minutes. As well as being a used as a watch the WN-1 can also be used as a desk clock when combined with any one of the cards provided by Seiko to contain the watch. There isn't much in-depth information online about the WN-1 so it's difficult for me to write a lot about this watch, but what I do know is that it's a fascinating piece of engineering. If you are lucky enough to own or find the WN-1 for sale it might just be worth buying or holding as it could be a valuable collectors piece in years to come.

Cabestan Winch Tourbillon Vertical

 

The Cabestan Winch Tourbillon Vertical is apparently designed from an image of capstan – a large mechanical device drum operated by a lever causing rope or chains to wrap around the drum. First of all this watch looks nothing like I’ve ever seen before, it’s made up of drums and pullies and looks like a strangely appealing, angular homage to some medieval device. The Cabestan Calibre CAB EC 101 movement made by Eric Coudray that powers this contraption is nothing short of breath-taking; all 809 components are assembled and regulated by hand.

The hours, minutes and seconds are displayed on cylindrical drums and sit above the visible fusee vertical tourbillon and allow the chains driving the movement under constant force to be seen clearly. Would I want to own this watch? Probably not. But it’s undoubtedly one of the most technically interesting watches I’ve come across. The case can be found in four different finishes, from brushed titanium, gold and platinum through to the very subtle gold encrusted with diamonds. The Cabestan Winch Tourbillon Vertical, as I’m sure you’ve guessed isn’t cheap retails at a minimum of $275,000 and with only 135 reportedly ever made, it further adds to the cool factor that undeniably surrounds this fine example of imagination and technically brilliance combined.