Marking the Lunar New Year, Arnold & Son imagined an immense moon that illuminates the second zodiac animal in Chinese astrology.
The resulting Perpetual Moon "Year of the Ox" timepiece boasts a brilliant celestial body that becomes even more alluring in the dark.
The limited edition of eight pieces is based on a high-precision moon-phase model engineered by Arnold & Son, whose English roots dates back to 1764.
A native of Cornwall, John Arnold founded the watchmaking business in an era when Great Britain dominated the production of precision timepieces. His son John Roger Arnold joined him, and eventually took over the company, which became notable for award-winning marine chronometers.
Today, the British heritage is complemented by Swiss know-how at the manufacture in La Chaux-de-Fonds, a horological hub in the Jura region.
The Perpetual Moon is characterised by its rich textural variation and a large aperture looming over the dial that houses the shimmering moon floating in a guilloché starry sky, while a second moon phase indicator is visible through the transparent case back.
After obsidian and aventurine quartz, specular haematite has been selected for making the dial of the Perpetual Moon "Year of the Ox".
This variety of haematite is in a laminated form with naturally smooth and shiny layers. As with all haematites, due to its iron composition, there are silvery flakes in its totally black mass.
The black dial is lit up by the mesmerising moon on a mother-of-pearl disc with hand-painted shadows and coated with Super-Luminova. The disc turns to show the age of Earth's natural satellite, through the appearance of its crescent and light.
In the daylight, it is almost white. In the dark, it lights up from within while showing more details.
Black guilloché-work gives the dark sky with the silvery hand-painted constellations enhanced with Super-LumiNova.
The in-house developed and manufactured movement ensures that the moon-phase will remain accurate for 122 years before deviating by one day from the actual appearance of the moon in the night-sky.
At 6 o'clock, the hand-engraved ox with striking horns is in 18ct yellow gold. The miniature sculpture presents the zodiac animal in a majestic posture, against a scenery of multi-storey pagodas, hand-painted with pink gold powder.
Their windows have also been painted with Super-LumiNova. Thus at night-time, these temples are lit up from the interior.
With its hand-wound mechanical movement providing a power reserve of 90 hours, the Perpetual Moon "Year of the Ox" is housed in a 18ct red gold case with a diameter of 42mm.
Glittering specks from haematite have been incorporated into the alligator-skin strap with stitching in veritable platinum (Pt950) thread and a lining in the lucky colour red.
