Not all images were able to load for printing. Please close the print window and try again. The Captivating Arnold & Son Perpetual Moon 41.5 Platinum Fern Green Edition
A green field of ferns admires the waxing and waning of Arnold & Son’s large, glowing Moon.
Arnold & Son has succumbed to the strong gravitational pull of the Moon by reinterpreting the phases of our neighbouring satellite in some of the largest displays in watchmaking today. The brand’s famous Perpetual Moon, with a massive 11.2mm moon in a generous aperture at noon, delights us once again in this latest platinum edition with a gorgeous Fern Green dial.
Following the first 2013 Perpetual Moon and the 2016 Double Hemisphere Perpetual Moon, Arnold & Son animated the display with a three-dimensional moon on the 44mm Luna Magna – the largest rotating moon ever featured inside a wristwatch. More compact, the Perpetual Moon comes in 38mm and 41.5mm case sizes with a range of artisanal techniques decorating the dial. The captivating Royal Blue and Salmon Pink references launched in 2022, followed by the Celestial Blue model, all feature a series of deeply engraved ‘Stellar Rays’ on the dial.
The new Perpetual Moon 41.5 relies on the same beautifully engraved furrows but has selected a fresh Fern Green colour. As the brand points out, ferns grow in abundance in Cornwall, the county where the English clockmaker John Arnold (1736-1799), famed for his marine chronometers, was born.
Housed in a luxurious polished platinum case with a thickness of 11.3mm, the slim bezel gives precedence to the dial. The engraving of the rays on the dial is irregular, with different widths and depths to produce a dynamic interplay of shadow and light. The green tone is obtained with a PVD treatment and then coated with several layers of transparent lacquer. Faceted and applied to the dial, the hour markers follow the shape of the pleated rays and are indicated by faceted and elongated syringe-style hands.
Dominating the scenery in the top area of the dial is the large 29mm aperture for the moon phases. Set against a grained midnight blue sky, the moons are crafted from mother-of-pearl discs enhanced with hand-painted details and Super-LumiNova for a wonderful moonlit effect in the dark. The sky also hosts the Ursa Major and Cassiopeia constellations. Hand-painted and coated with Super-LumiNova, these constellations were used by navigators to find their bearings at sea before the advent of reliable marine chronometers.
The precision moon phase complication has a deviation of just one day every 122 years. However, if the watch is not wound and the moon phases need adjusting, there is a second moon phase indicator on the caseback with a precision scale to fine-tune the settings. The nicely decorated manual-winding calibre A&S1512 has a 3Hz frequency and two barrels for a solid 90-hour power reserve.
The Perpetual Moon 41.5 Fern Green comes with a matching green alligator strap with a platinum pin buckle. It is a limited edition of 28 pieces and retails for CHF 46,700 (incl. tax). More information at ArnoldandSon.com.
