Jacob & Co. Astronomia Sky Celestial Panorama Gravitational Triple Axis Tourbillon Watch Hands-On

At Baselworld 2016, Jacob & Co. launched a new version of the popular Astronomia large watch called Jacob & Co. Astronomia Sky Celestial Panorama Gravitational Triple Axis Tourbillon. “Jacob & Co. Astronomia Sky” is not intended as a substitute, but as a supplement to the original Jacob & Co. Astronomia (in this case), adding some complications, in fact the case size is smaller.

Compared with the standard Astronomia’s 50 mm wide size, Jacob & Co. Astronomia Sky is “only” 47 mm wide and 25 mm thick. No one wears such a watch because it is slim, but Jacob & Co. was asked to make a more wearable version of its interesting Astronomia. Please also note that the image of Jacob & Co. Astronomia Sky Celestial Panorama Gravitational Triple Axis Tourbillon is a pre-production prototype. One of the key missing elements of this prototype watch is the lack of anti-reflective coating on the sapphire crystal glass. This makes the legibility quite poor, and the details of the watch are almost impossible to photograph through the crystal. It is just mentioned that since the “final” version of the watch will not have these crystal glare issues.

The debut version of the Jacob & Co. Astronomia Sky Celestial Panorama Gravitational three-axis tourbillon uses an 18k rose gold case with a large domed sapphire crystal on the top and a middle sapphire crystal ring on the side of the case. It makes viewing the inside and movement of the watch very simple and attractive. And, yes, there is a pen to match it. Well, actually these are pens that are integrated with Astronomia watches. They are produced by the Italian Visconti and Jacob & Co. in cooperation. These are also pre-production prototypes, and they will be in 18k rose gold and 18 white gold.

The focus of Astronomia is to provide a “four-arm” movement, which has a time dial (when the entire movement structure rotates around its axis, it will rotate to stay upright), a tourbillon (technically on two axis points) Move), a rotating seconds indicator, and a rotating sphere opposite the seconds indicator. Jacob & Co. Astronomia Sky more or less retained this feature (although the style and execution are different), and added some astronomical complications. watch luxury

Looking around the periphery of the dial through the side of the case, you will see a month indicator using a small hand that follows a 12-month scale that completely surrounds the face. Now, look at the center of the four-arm motion structure, and you will find on top of it you will find a small sphere that looks like the earth. This earth sphere has a hemispherical cover that can be moved around it to act as a day/night indicator. There are two pivot points to note here. They are the 24-hour rotation of the day and night indicator and the fact that the earth rotates once every 20 minutes, because that is the rotation time of the four-arm movement. The small “earth” itself is made of titanium and then painted and carved by hand.

On the watch dial below the movement, there is a celestial map with a series of zodiac indicators. The dial is made of blue titanium (similar to our long-loved De Bethune watch) and is equipped with an oval “sky indicator” hand. The entire dial actually rotates once a year, and the oval sky pointer rotates once every sidereal day (approximately one day) to show the stars visible from the northern hemisphere.

As you can see, Jacob & Co. wants to add a lot of astronomical information to their Astronomia watches. I think they have done a good job in Jacob & Co. Astronomia Sky while actually making the watch smaller. Of course, the watch is still a serious “display product”, most of its value lies in the design and display of fancy machinery.

Compared with the original Astronomia, the movement design of Jacob & Co. Astronomia Sky Celestial Panorama Gravitational Triple Axis Tourbillon has slightly changed. The “Jacob Cut” diamond is here replaced by a Jacob Cut orange sapphire, which rotates once a minute and is shaped like a sphere with 288 facet cuts. Opposite the Jacob Cut sapphire crystal mirror is the second pointer, which is used with some wave-shaped structures to represent orbiting satellites.

The movement inside the watch is Jacob & Co‘s unique (again produced by Studio7h38) movement JCAM11. The manual winding movement consists of 395 parts, runs at a frequency of 3Hz (21,600bph), and has a power reserve of 60 hours. The movement is amazing with its complexity and focus on visual entertainment when viewed in operation.

Jacob & Co. Astronomia Sky combines 18k rose gold and blue (with a blue alligator strap) for an absolute imperial appearance. This time, Jacob & Co. did not add any diamonds to it, but if I know Mr. Arab, the future version of Jacob & Co. Astronomia Sky will be equipped with diamonds. Like most watches produced by the brand, Jacob & Co. Astronomia Sky is part of a limited edition, and this one only has 18 pieces. I can’t wait to see the final version with a suitable sapphire crystal, because I think this and the entire Astronomia watch series represent some of the most interesting “outside” watches. These watches are obviously very luxurious, but we don’t immediately think watches are best for oligarchs. . I can see Jacob & Co. Astronomia Sky on the wrists of successful people, albeit a benevolent ruler!