Announced just ahead of Jacob & Co Astronomia Revolution Exclusive Watches & Wonders 2023, the artisans at Jacob & Co. revealed its newest addition to the technically fascinating Astronomia collection – the Astronomia Revolution – and it has all the visual allure and beauty you’d expect from the storied maison and then some. “We’ve been grooming the Astronomia movement for eight years now,” CEO Benjamin Arabov said in a press release for the new piece. “[The Astronomia Revolution] is unique, unheard of, and not just an evolution of [the earlier] Astronomia. This piece has been reworked from the ground up. It required revolutionary mechanics, inventions, and what we at Jacob & Co. are driven by. Jacob & Co Astronomia Revolution Exclusive is ‘inspired by the impossible,’ and we made it possible.” There you have it, said best by the object’s biggest cheerleader: the Astronomia Revolution is a challenging mechanical marvel turned into beautiful kinetic art and was made with passion. The poetry of the Astronomia Revolution’s moving mechanics is only the first part of the timepiece’s appeal. And the best way to appreciate it is with a video showcasing the symphonic classicism that is the Astronomia Revolution in motion.
The second part of the appeal is the entirely unexpected presentation. The almost “antique tool” nature of the spinning satellite carriage would tempt some watchmakers to wrap it all up in the fussy package of a classically adorned case design, like a medieval astronomer’s tool displayed in a dusty box in a museum. But Jacob & Co.’s designers, as they tend to do, picked something more dramatic. The Jacob & Co Astronomia Revolution Exclusive ’s 47mm case-turned-stage for its whirling mechanics is clean, modern, and glimmering without being overly technical, regardless of the highly complex engineering marvel inside it. Simple rectangular bar second indices are on the watch’s equivalent of a flange at the top of the dial, but these indices do not create any visual distractions to an overhead view through the sapphire crystal. In fact, sapphire crystal portals along the casebands mean the fascinating, spinning machine takes centerstage regardless of your viewing angle. And that’s just what you want. But the real visual kicker is the curved array of eighteen hexagonal mirrors that serves as the movement’s dance floor. Each made from 18K red gold and inspired by the James Webb Space Telescope, this “floor” is a shining honeycomb ode to the highly polished reflectors aboard the telescope to observe the cosmos.
And, in the case of the Jacob & Co Astronomia Revolution Exclusive, they reflect the entire cosmic ballet above it wonderfully.