By Harlan Chapman-Green

I’ll go ahead and be the first to say it but we absolutely love the moon phase here at WristReview and we love it in all its forms. From the super simple yet deadly accurate moon phase in the H.Moser & Cie Endeavour Moon to the beautifully complex A.Lange & Söhne Richard Lange Perpetual Calendar Terraluna to the downright bonkers Bovet Recital 18 Shooting Star. So you can imagine we were especially delighted when we found out about the Arnold & Son HM Double Hemisphere Perpetual Moon Watch, this is due to the fact that almost the entire dial is a moon phase, and what a pretty one it is, too!

Other companies wouldn’t dare be this inventive with a moon phase watch. They’d simply prefer to bung the moon phase in some place that’s not immediately obvious but clearly still counts and would be missed if it weren’t there, just like a bass player in some ways. However in the ArnieSon & The Perpetuals band you can be assured that bass has taken full pride of place on this timepiece. The 29mm moon phase has two 11.2mm photorealistic rose gold moons on it, that means they’re going to look as accurate and gorgeous as possible. The gold contrasts excellently with the deep blue lacquered guilloché wave dial. The moon phase is supremely accurate as well, over the course of 122 years it will only have deviated by one day and you can easily adjust it back to the correct indication. To help appeal to those in both hemispheres the HM Double Hemisphere, as the name suggests, indicates the phase of the moon in both the north and south, easily done due to the fact that the phases of the moon are opposite, there’s also a handy reminder of the countries of the world and the equator.

For Baselworld 2017, Arnold & Son unveiled another masterfully skeletonized watch which carries the brand’s conceptual DNA forward. The Arnold & Son DBG Skeleton is the newest addition to the DBG (Double-Balance GMT) collection which we analyzed the original, non-skeletonized variant of in greater detail here back in 2013. For all those unfamiliar with this particular piece, it’s basically two motions which share a winding system, housed in 1 watch. Skeletonized, this watch looks incredible and is the perfect illustration of Arnold & Son’s relentless progress.First, a little bit more about Arnold & Son’s DBG system. Each time display is powered by its own barrel, with its gear train, escapement, and balance, while sharing one winding system. While this isn’t necessarily unprecedented, due to the offsets of these shared elements compared to the independent components, it’s not always pretty, and rarely skeletonized. But with all the DBG Skeleton, we see virtually perfect symmetry on the dial and caseback.The unusual nature of the in-house A&S1309 movement allows for a few additional mechanical and practical advantages. For instance, due to the distinct barrel, gear train, and escapement/balance, the GMT purpose comprises a “minutes” hand instead of the conventional 24-hour counter only. Every time zone screen in the Arnold & Son DBG Skeleton could be set to incremental quarters of the hour. So for a few Indian, Australian, and Canadian time zones which are off by half-hours, for example, the watch can account for that. Additionally, the Equation of Time display at 12 o’clock decides the difference between each display, in addition to whether it is night or day in the next time zone. The A&S1309 defeats at 21,600bph and features a 40-hour power book.

The 42mm rose gold case has slightly curved and straight lugs, no crown guards and a large diameter crown that appears to me like that of a squashed onion crown. The sword hands on the dial have a double finish, meaning that they have a polished look on one side and a brushed finish on the other. Powering the timepiece is an Arnold & Son calibre A&S1512 has two barrels and a power reserve of 90 hours, given that I’ve looked at quite a few watches recently with relatively short power reserves it’s good to see that it hasn’t been overlooked this time. The mechanically wound movement has been put on display on the reverse of the watch and has been decorated with circular graining and Côtes de Genève as well as blued screws. There’s also another indicator that’s been snuck in here and shows the different phases of the moon in a different way. We’ll get to see this watch full at BaselWorld and if you’re thinking of picking one up then he price is $30,500. For more info, please visit arnoldandson.com

HARLAN CHAPMAN-GREEN – MANAGING EDITOR

A keen bass guitar player, Harlan enjoys all the perks modern watchmaking technologies the industry has to offer. Although you might catch him sampling Omegas or the “odd” Rolex, Harlan loves all things Haute Horology, with his three favourite brands being Breguet, A.Lange & Söhne and Vacheron Constantin. He hopes to study timekeeping more in depth someday and will never be able to thank his father enough for introducing him to the industry. You can follow him on Instagram Read his articles here