At a time when most watch companies are scaling back offering more conservative offerings, Jacob & Co. has launched the most unorthodox and spectacular timepiece in its more than 30-year watchmaking history. Built under the technical supervision of complication specialist Luca Soprano, the replica Astronomia Sky features a world-class central axis around which a multi-axis tourbillon revolves, self-calibrating time displays, gems and sculptures – all presented in an expansive In a domed sapphire case.

Jacob & Co. cheap balances this whimsical mechanical ballet with one of watchmaking’s most academic complications – a sidereal time display; like the rest of the watch, the structure of the last movement is completely original. The star map for this function appears on a concave disk that rotates once per sidereal year (slightly longer than the Gregorian year), while the oval markings represent the current overhead star as it orbits every sidereal day (23.56 hours) disk once). The extra complication not only adds a grandeur to the watch: it turns a spectacular mechanism into a study of the nature of time.