【F】C. Van Der Klaauw Grand Planetarium Eccentric Meteorite

Final yr, for the model’s fiftieth anniversary, Christiaan van der Klaauw launched the Grand Planetarium Eccentric. It was a 44mm watch in platinum or rose gold with eight hand-painted celestial our bodies circling its aventurine dial. That already sounds fairly spectacular, proper? Effectively, once I met Pim Koeslag, CEO of the Dutch model, at Watches and Wonders in Geneva just a few weeks in the past, he confirmed me a brand new model of it, this time with a case crafted from a 1.09kg block of meteorite. I used to be instantly blown away by the outcome and needed to share my admiration for it with the Fratelli.

Fortunately, on my method to the Christiaan van der Klaauw sales space, I bumped into Morgan Saignes, Fratello’s former photographer. I requested him to “rapidly” take just a few photographs, they usually didn’t come out too badly. However earlier than we take a greater have a look at the meteorite model of the Grand Planetarium Eccentric, let me first introduce you to the model and “common” model of the watch.

Christiaan van der Klaauw

Christiaan van der Klaauw is a Dutch watchmaker who has been making astronomical clocks and watches since 1974. With distinctive issues, similar to probably the most correct three-dimensional moonphase show and miniature planetaria, he pays tribute to well-known Dutch astronomers like Christiaan Huygens and Eise Eisinga. The previous found Saturn’s rings and invented the pendulum motion for clocks within the seventeenth century. The latter constructed a planetarium within the ceiling of his front room between 1774 and 1781.

In 2009, designer couple Daniel and Maria Reintjes took over the model from Christiaan van der Klaauw. They made the model internationally identified and collaborated with, for instance, Van Cleef & Arpels on the Woman Arpels Planétarium. In 2018, that watch received the GPHG Girls’ Complication prize, and it just lately went into house on Kerianne Flynn’s wrist throughout the Blue Origin all-female house flight. In 2021, CVDK received the GPHG award within the class for Calendar and Astronomy Watch with the Planetarium Eise Eisinga.

Since 2022, Pim Koeslag, former technical director at Frederique Fixed, has held a majority stake within the Christiaan van der Klaauw model.

The Grand Planetarium Eccentric

The Grand Planetarium Eccentric continues to be a collaboration between the three events. Daniel and Maria Reintjes had been answerable for its design, whereas Pim and Christiaan van der Klaauw had been answerable for the technical aspect. It’s the primary time that Uranus and Neptune characteristic on one of many model’s mini planetaria. The person answerable for the calculations of the orbits of the planets is Christiaan van der Klaauw himself. That’s why the Grand Planetarium Eccentric is the one mechanical planetarium watch on the planet on which Mercury, Venus, Earth (and its moon), Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune transfer across the Solar.

They even achieve this within the time they require in actual life, and their orbits are eccentric. As well as, the central palms show hours and minutes, whereas the miniature planet Earth’s orbit corresponds to the months and zodiac indicators. The planetarium module is a part of a brand new motion. Caliber CKM-01 was developed along with motion maker Uhrteil AG, a enterprise by watchmaker Andreas Strehler. It options 32 jewels, runs at a frequency of 21,600vph, and holds an influence reserve of 60 hours. The motion has hand-finished star-shaped bridges and a skeletonized and gold-plated brass rotor with a tungsten weight.

Final yr’s model was out there in a 44mm case made from both rose gold or platinum. However what higher materials to make use of for an astronomical watch like this than meteorite?

The Grand Planetarium Eccentric Meteorite

The thought of the meteorite case got here from Pim Koeslag. He says he had labored with the fabric at Ateliers de Monaco for dials and such, however he hadn’t made a whole case out of it. He began with the thought to make solely the bezel out of meteorite. However then he was capable of purchase a 1.09kg piece of meteorite consisting of 92% iron, 7.5% nickel, and a little bit of cobalt, so he requested his case maker if he might craft a whole 44mm case out of it. He tried together with his CNC machine fitted with a tungsten carbide drill, which shattered a number of occasions as a consequence of concentrations of carbon inside that had been too laborious to machine.

Nevertheless, ultimately, he was capable of manufacture two circumstances, every made out of 47 grams of meteorite. The plan was to make three out of that one kilogram of meteorite. Sadly, although, the third one failed as the fabric was too porous. The 2 remaining circumstances present the fabric’s stunning crystalline texture, which solely seems when the core of the meteorite cools down slowly over many hundreds of thousands of years. While you see it in actual life, it virtually lights up because it displays the sunshine round it so effectively.

On the dial, there’s additionally a meteorite ring. This accommodates 5 actual fragments of nakhlite meteorites, which originated from volcanic eruptions on Mars. Pim discovered these in yet one more meteorite, and the items, positioned between Mars and Jupiter, signify the asteroid belt. This can be a area in house between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter the place a lot of the asteroids in our Photo voltaic System are discovered orbiting the Solar.

Closing phrases

Briefly, that is a kind of mind-blowing watches you simply must see in actual life. Morgan’s footage are nice, however the feeling of holding this watch and that loopy texture is nearly indescribable. In the event you’re into astronomy and horology, then the Christiaan van der Klaauw Grand Planetarium Eccentric Meteorite is more likely to be one among your grail watches. There’s a lot extra I might let you know concerning the origin of meteorites, the kinds of meteorites, the age of the fabric, and so forth. Fortunately, the model has a really informative touchdown web page that explains all the things. There’s even a 10-minute lecture by astrophysicist Niek de Kort, who helped Christiaan van der Klaauw throughout the improvement of the watch.

The regular-production Christiaan van der Klaauw Grand Planetarium Eccentric prices €208,000 in rose gold and €227,000 in platinum, each together with VAT. As talked about, the meteorite model needs to be a restricted version of three items, every with a value of €580,000, excluding VAT. Two have already been made and, I consider, offered. For the third one, the oldsters at Christiaan van der Klaauw nonetheless want to search out the proper piece of meteorite.

Let me know within the feedback under what you consider the CVDK Grand Planetarium Eccentric meteorite.

Thanks once more to Morgan Saignes for serving to out with the photographs!