Top Five Moon Phases From BaselWorld

The moon phase is a complication that’s aesthetically pleasing and functional. It displays the phases of the moon on its dial via a rotating disc, decorated with golden stars and two golden moons, usually against a blue or white backdrop. But we saw some interesting variations this year at BaselWorld. Here are our Top Five. 

In contrast to other Patek Philippe watches with perpetual calendars, this one is based on the self-winding caliber 324 movement with a central rotor. This traditional looking moon phase display features on an otherwise atypical honey brown dial. It’s extremely accurate and deviates from the true lunar cycle by only 11 minutes and 47 seconds every year. For more, please visit Patek Philippe.

The new Blancpain 225L movement unites a carrousel, a moon phase and a date for the very first time. The dial is split in two halves, with the carrousel in the top and the moon phase in the bottom half, giving each complication a lot of room to express itself. While it doesn’t bear traditional colors, this black and gold moon phase jumps out from the pristine white dial. For more, please visit Blancpain.

Harry Winston’s latest Midnight model features a gold and silver-toned moon disk on a slate-gray motif, inside the aperture at 6 o’clock. One brilliant-cut diamond lights up an otherwise dark dial, and complements the other complications that surround it, such as the date wheel below. For more, please visit Harry Winston.

Konstantin Chaykin’s latest release is an update of the Decalogue model, a watch based on the Jewish calendar, which is lunar. Its main features are therefore the Hebrew characters used for the hour indicators, and a black and silver moon phase indicator found underneath the time display. For more, please visit Konstantin Chaykin.

Graff released a different kind of moon phase display this year. Instead of a rotating disk, the complication featured here in the Diamond GyroGraff, charts the lunar cycle by revealing the surface of a three dimensional hand-carved moon, as it would appear in the sky. It’s available in two versions, both seen in the picture above, in rose gold and in white gold, and comes with or without diamonds. For more, please visit Graff.