Collectors of fine timepieces are used to having the finest materials involved in the creation of their watches. Gold, silver, platinum and diamonds all feature in pieces from Cartier, Rolex and Patek Philippe.
However one type of material, worth more per gram than gold, is rare even for watches: fragments of meteorite. Yet that is exactly the source for the dial in Arnold & Sons' recently released True Moon Meteorite watch.
Available in either a stainless steel or an 18kt pink gold case (46mm in diameter), the attractive piece displays the date and, naturally, a patented Moon phase system and perpetual Moon cycle (powered by an independent gear set), plus the date at the 3 o'clock position.
 The True Moon Meteorite watch (rose gold) |
It is also water-resistant to a depth of 100 feet, though presumably the brown croco strap is not, and has a cambered sapphire crystal case-back.
The dial itself is made from meteorite with special hatching. But Arnold & Sons do not specify what kind of meteorite it is, beyond that it is rare, hard as steel, and found in the Arizona desert. We might hazard a guess at an iron meteorite such as octahedrite.
Although extremely unusual, this is not the first time that we've seen meteorite used in a watch dial. The Louis Moinet Magistralis contains fragments of moon meteorite - even rarer than octahedrites - and an Omega watch created to celebrate a joint US-Soviet has some too (see below).
Given the limited supply of meteorites and strictly limited edition of the watch, the True Moon Meteorite may well prove to be a good investment.
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