HotScope

I guess
you won’t be too surprised but we’re still,in birthday season, isn’t this amazing,
so for my new birthday I said to myself, well,let’s go full on, let’s be slightly exuberant
and I know we’ve already shown you some,pretty crazy pieces, but today we’re even
going just a tad further with the Jacob & Co,Astronomia Sky, a rather daring, bold and
spectacular timepiece, and to make things,simple, I chose the platinum version limited
to 18 pieces, I like platinum and blue, of,course.,So as you can see, my birthday present seems
pretty big and let’s go for some proper,unwrapping.,Big cardboard box and when I open it you discover
a pretty odd object facing you.,I will now put my gloves and remove what looks
like an asteroid and place it on the table.,So not everyday that you will see such a watch
case for sure.,You have a screen here and by pressing this
button, a film starts going over the main,features of this timepiece,,but enough teasing, let’s see the real thing
and to do so you move this little lever on,the top
and an aperture like mechanism let’s you,discover your Astronomia Sky hiding in the
core of the asteroid.,Let’s take it out.,So the box was big and the timepiece is also
pretty big, 47mm in width and a spectacular,25mm in height, but there’s a lot happening
in there and let me summarise what we have,and I almost don’t know where to start.,So first of all you have to imagine that this
timepiece’s movement is made out of approximately,400 component and on a central vertical axis
you have a cross shaped structure onto which,4 modules if I can call them like this are
attached.,You have an hour and minute openworked dial,
with blue floating hands, but what you have,to imagine is that the cross shaped structure
of course doesn’t stand still like this,,it makes a 360° turn on itself in 20 minutes,
meaning that naturally the dial also has to,pivot on itself to keep the 12 hour mark always
on top at 12 o’clock.,Opposite of this fancy mechanism, well another
little complex mechanism with this multi axis,tourbillon with the first axis turning on
itself in 60 seconds, the second one in 5,minutes and the third axis in 20 minutes,
since the full cross shaped structure moves,like I just mentioned.,So one thing important to note is that these
two mechanisms are opposite of each other,not only to balance things out visually, but
more importantly they balance out their weight,,something naturally extremely important and
it’s the same idea regarding the other two,features found on this pretty crazy structure.,On one side you an orbital seconds indicator
and opposite of this one, it’s also in a,certain way a second indicator, but a very
special one, since it uses one of Jacob & Co’s,signature diamond cut simply called the Jacob
Cut Moon and you have a perfect diamond sphere,with no less than 288 facets, probably the
most craziest disco ball I have ever seen,and is super complicated to execute by some
master jeweller and you do have to remember,that Jacob & Co is first known for its jewellery.,Anyhow, to achieve this, they will start with
a pretty big 4 carat diamond and they will,slim it down to 1 carat in the process and
I can promise you that looking at it with,the micros is quite spectacular.,Just imagine what it takes to attach it perfectly,
to center it on this axis which like I said,turns on itself in 60 seconds too.,Ok, but obviously the show doesn’t stop
there.,In the middle, on a vertical axis you will
find a day and night indication with a hand,engraved and lacquered titanium globe which
rotates on itself in 24 hours, but it’s,also part of the 20 minute tour of this entire
floating mechanism, so in a certain way, you,can mention 2 axis too.,Ok, but let’s not forget the name of the
timepiece, Astronomia Sky, because yes you,will also find sidereal indications.,As you can see at the back of these satelite
like / international space station vibe, well,you do find a map of the sky seen from the
northern hemisphere and this entire map turns,on itself in a full year.,This implies that you have kind of a date
indicator seen between the lugs at 6 o’clock.,In this case and as the map moves in an anti-clockwise
direction to mimic what is actually going,on up there, well here you can more or less
say that we are in mid-end of July, so not,super precise, but sincerely this is not the
point with such a timepiece.,So additional this, you also have an oval
shape component which zooms in the constellation,that you can see above your head at this very
moment.,So yes, quite a timepiece, a bit more than
simple watchmaking, actually crazy watchmaking,if I can say so, a full show on your wrist
to look at and definitely a talking piece,,not necessarily super discreet, but you know
what, why not??,There is a playful dimension with such object,
bt I have to admit that is super well made,,you feel that a lot of care has been put on
some high-end finishing and this see through,case is really quite something.,Ok, so how do set this one up?,Well the team of Jacob & Co has made your
life just a bit easier, since you can download,an app which will pretty simply tell you what
to do.,So first of all you determine where you are
located, in this case Geneva, no I am not,on my super yacht in the middle of the mediterean
sea, but here at TheWATCHES.club.,Press the Set up button and you will see what
needs to be done.,Flip your watch around and you can see two
kind of crowns.,So to wind the watch, just turn this left
crown and once fully wound, you will have,60 hours of power reserve for this tourbillon
watch beating at 3Hz and that’s seriously,not bad considering all what is happening
in there.,And now let’s set up the central globe indicating
day and night.,To do so, we use the second crown and turn
it in an anticlockwise direction, but that’s,when the app becomes really useful.,By pressing this button, the app will simply
show me where I need to align my globe.,I just have to compare between the two and
I’ll be right.,Quite handy right?,For time setting, I use the same crown, but
this time in a clockwise direction and this,is pretty straight forward.,Ok next tricky indication regarding the date
and at 5 o’clock on the back side you will,find a small gear like wheel and you just
turn it around till your month indication,corresponds and for the last indication, your
sidereal time, the app proves again to be,very useful and by moving the wheel at 7 o’clock,
the oval on the dial side will move and you,again make it match with what you see on the
app and now this timepiece is fully set.,Like I mentioned in the intro, this timepiece
in its platinum execution is limited to 18,pieces, but there are a few other interesting
variations of the Astronomia Sky, but just,wanted to add the Astronomia is a full collection
by Jacob & Co, some of which are slightly,bigger.,So if this was not spectacular enough, well
you know that you can add a few millimeters,with some other functions or executions if
required.,So I know this is exuberant, probably over
the top for many, but nonetheless I really,like that we see some crazy machines like
this and that are also some pretty daring,customers that go down that route.,Obviously it’s quite a statement there sitting
on your wrist, but for some why not!!,Ok, I hope you enjoyed this birthday celebration,
I’m going back on my super yacht now and,see you real soon and a massive Viva Watchmaking
to you, crazy watchmaking that is.,All the best.