Watches and astronomy

Star dial

Astronomy is the occupation with what one can see and observe in the sky and thus, above the earth and the horizon. Since ancient times, people like to associate the combination of stars in the sky with characters or stories in Greek mythology, and then name them different constellations. By 1930, the International Astronomical Union unified the division of star clusters in the sky and divided the star combinations in the sky into 88 constellations. Since then, every star in the sky belongs to a constellation.

The star dial of the watch is generally made of placer and decorated with copper treated by special technology. The high-end is made of platinum relief or enamel technology, which is heavy and meticulous, and the cost is high.

Moon phase

It is one of the oldest functions of clocks and watches. Its structure is not complex. It takes 29.5 days as a cycle to reflect the shape of the moon on the dial. Today's moon phase has no practical value, but quoting Yves corthesy, the director of zhenlishi movement, said, "the moon phase may not be a function that people need every day, but its existence divides some people who wear watches into two factions - pragmatists and romantics. Every time I see the moon phase, I can always think of the original clock form."

Most lunar phase functions are window like, with smiling faces or bright and dark images of the moon. A few are pointer type. Very few will adopt the design of three-dimensional lunar phase dial.

Summer time

This is a policy to save energy and make full use of sunlight. But at present, it is also adopted by some countries, such as the European Union. Some countries do not adopt it, such as China. Even in a country, some states adopt it and some states do not. For example: the United States, Canada, Australia.

Dial daylight saving time indication window: DST (daylight saving time or summer time)

Standard time window: STD

World time zone Watch & dual time zone Watch

GMT（Greenwich Mean Time）。 The emergence of European Railways has shortened the distance between cities, and railway companies have the problem of non-uniform time caused by crossing longitude.

In 1840, the telegraph was tested in Blackwall, London. The "London unified time", which can be accurate to minutes, can instantly cover the European continent. Therefore, this "London time" is also called "railway time" by the railway company. Since then, the big clock in the railway station has been designed into two dials, one to display local time and the other to display "railway time". In 1853, Tissot watch began to produce dual time zone pocket watches in the same year when the brand was founded. Later, various brands successively launched dual time zones and world time watches.

For this function, the dial is designed with a window type, and Arabic numerals are used to display the time in the second time zone; There is a central pointer type, and the inner or outer ring of the dial has a 24-hour scale indication; There is an independent small dial, which can intuitively display the time in the second time zone with another small dial and pointer.

Window

Central pointer

Independent sub-dial

The world time watch writes all the representative cities in the 24 time zone on the position of the corresponding dial time zone, so that the time of major cities in the world can be seen at a glance. At the same time, different color circles are used to indicate whether the local is day or night.

Perpetual calendar

The study of the perpetual calendar by watchmakers began in the early 17th century. In 1615, Dabu, a watchmaker in Geneva, Switzerland, made the first clock with the function of the perpetual calendar in history. In 1764, Thomas March, an English watchmaker, made a pocket watch with the function of a perpetual calendar. About 100 years later, watches with perpetual calendar function came out one after another.

With the help of complex micro mechanical devices, the perpetual calendar watch can not only display the date, week, month and leap year, but also automatically correct the date according to the length of the month, including the leap year month with 29 days in February. Generally, leap years are represented by 4 (4 usually uses red to distinguish ordinary years 1, 2 and 3), or l (leap year), or B (bissextile).

Sunrise and sunset

Record the time of sunrise in the morning and sunset in the evening. It is like the sunrise of an agricultural society and the daily income. This is a super complex concept and technology, which closely connects astronomy and watches.

Referring to this function, we have to say that the German independent watchmaker brand: Martin Braun. The EOS sunrise and sunset watch designed by him is unique, its shape looks like an owl, and won the gold pointer award of the 2000 Geneva advanced watch award! And this award is known as the "Oscar" of the watch industry.

Time equation

The Time equation, also called astronomical time difference, shows the time difference between the average solar time and the actual solar time per day, +16 minutes to -14 minutes per day. The dial is symmetrical and beautiful, and the general scale is +15 minutes to -15 minutes. In order to facilitate the timing, we fixed it to be 24 hours a day.

But in astronomy, the orbit of the earth is elliptical, not circular. Moreover, the plane of the earth's rotation orbit has an included angle of 23 degrees with the plane of the orbital orbit, which results in the actual length of a day being an increase or decrease of about 15 minutes on the basis of the average length of 24 hours. There are only four days in a year, and these two times are exactly the same, that is, the position of the pointer at 0 scale.

This complex craftsmanship related to astronomy can only be seen on some brands of complex watches.

Ulysse Nardin's timepiece trilogy

The astrolabe design originated from the master watchmaker Ludwig Oechslin. In 1985, the first Galileo astrolabe watch was launched, showing the positions of the sun, moon, stars, etc., as well as time, month, sunrise and sunset, and moon phase.

In 1988, the Copernicus running watch was launched. In addition to displaying the time, date, month, and moon phase profit and loss, it also indicated the astronomical coordinates of the sun, moon and planets.

In 1992, the Kepler Astronomical Observatory was launched, placing the earth in the center, showing the geographical structure of the entire earth, like a scene looking down at the pole of the North Pole.

The Athens Oaklin timepiece trilogy, the heliocentric theory of Copernicus, Galileo's astronomical observations, and Kepler's planetary motion are all reflected in this watch.

Vacheron Constantin Maestro Copernicus Celestial Watch

A total of three different dials have been designed, and three different ways of interpreting the theme of Copernicus' "heliocentric theory".

The first uses the ancient and cumbersome process of filling enamel, showing the outline of the earth's blue oceans and continents. The detailed lines show the orbits of the five celestial bodies and planets. The outer ring is made of enamel with 12 constellations. The entire dial is set against a background of a starry sky on a gold base, adorned with enamel glazes in pastel tones, a harmony of classical beauty.

The second dial features a Baroque relief, hand-engraved on the white gold dial. The whole relief is extremely layered, and the beveled micro-sculpture brings unique light and shadow effects. Showcasing the excellent craftsmanship of the master carver.

In addition to reflecting the interaction between the sun and the earth, the third dial is presented with a 3D effect starry sky background. The dial is divided into upper and lower layers, the lower layer is a hand-painted midnight blue dial, and the upper layer is covered with a transparent sapphire mirror decorated with an engraved pattern on the back. Hand-carved earth, land and sea in radiance.