Romain Jerome has become known as the watchmaker that incorporates exotic materials into its timepieces, from moon dust, to metal from the Statue of Liberty, to volcanic ash. And while it’s still embracing that role with the new Moon Orbiter, the watch actually puts more focus on the highly engineered flying tourbillon exposed at the 9 o’clock position than it does its little slice of history.
As with Romain Jerome’s past creations, the Moon Orbiter still incorporates a sprinkling of moon dust and metal harvested from the Apollo 11 spacecraft, but its $115,000 price tag and namesake can be more attributed to the mechanical tourbillon that appears to be suspended in a stationary orbit on the left side of the watch.
It’s left exposed like the rest of the watch’s mechanics so horological aficionados can stare in awe, but even amateur watch enthusiasts can study its complexity and understand why only 25 of these are being created and sold.
[Romain Jerome via Hodinkee]