The HM Perpetual Moon Aventurine offers a spectacular solid gold moon phase sitting above the sparkling blue aventurine quartz dial and paired with an in-house Arnold & Son mechanical calibre.
Demonstrating its British history and Swiss savoir-faire, Arnold & Son presents the HM Perpetual Moon with a beautifully decorative blue aventurine quartz dial, limited to 28 pieces.
The Case and Dial
The case is 18 carat red gold and 42mm in diameter. The case and the raised bezel have a polished finished and to contrast this the lugs of the watch have a brushed finish. The knurled crown is adorned with the logo of Arnold and Son.
The watch does have presence on the wrist due to its size but sits flat and will have no issues fitting under a shirt cuff. Used on the dial is a blue aventurine quartz, blue lacquered guilloché moon disc decorated with a solid 18-karat red gold (5N) moon and golden stars
The aperture for the moon phase on the HM Perpetual Moon is much larger than most. Differentiated by more than just size, the visual spectacle of a large moon with pock marked surfaces is an artistic realist display of the Moon’s texture.
It occupies a third of the dial and is accompanied by stars in a big dipper formation. The moon phase disc is 29mm in diameter and features a lacquered blue guilloché.
Faceted hours and minutes hands run along twelve golden indexes applied on the blue aventurine quartz dial.
The Movement
The timepiece houses the exclusive Arnold & Son mechanical hand-wound calibre A&S1512 exclusively developed for the moon phases complication and equipped with a double barrel to yield a 90-hour power reserve.
This movement supply a precision moon phase with one day deviation every 122 years and offers a unique easy-to-set feature thanks to the addition of a second moon phases indicator visible through the transparent case back.
Beyond technological aspects of the HM Perpetual Moon Aventurine, the entire rhodium plated movement features hand finishing including: chamfered with polished edges, Côtes de Genève and fine circular grained bridges, circular grained wheels, blued screws with polished and chamfered edges.
Concluding Thoughts
The Arnold & Son HM Perpetual Moon Aventurine is a statement timepiece, with not only an aesthetically intricate design, but also an impressive purpose-built movement to match. While the case size hangs on the larger side for an otherwise classic case design, we like that the movement ‘fills up’ the case, visible from the case back.
The larger movement size is likely due to the larger barrel required to power the 90 hours reserve, and the parts required for the perpetual moonphase complication. Movement finishing is excellent, comparable if not slightly better than most Jaeger LeCoultre movement finishing, but a notch before A. Lange & Söhne.
Priced at CHF 31’900 (subject to change), the Arnold & Son HM Perpetual Moon Aventurine is competitively priced, for its class of complication, precious metal, finishing levels. While there are plenty of other watches to consider from at this price range, this piece will resonate the most with collectors looking for a pedigree moonphase watch that is classic yet atypical. With a 28 piece limited edition, it is also a very small run for ensured exclusiveness.
