The new Tudor 1926 Luna certainly occupies illustrious space in horological tradition. After all, Omega’s Speedmaster Professional Moonwatch; Jaeger-LeCoultre’s Master Ultra Thin Moon; IWC’s Big Pilot’s Watch Perpetual Calendar Edition Le Petit Prince; Blancpain’s Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe Moonphase – all of these classic pieces have paid tribute to a celestial orb which has inspired awe in humans for as long as we’ve been sentient.
More specifically, the piece created in collaboration with Taiwanese singer-songwriter and actor Jay Chou pays tribute to the Chinese tradition of the Mid-Autumn Festival, a celebration of family unity which takes place when the moon is at its fullest and brightest. The latest member of a discreet line of pieces named after the year when “The Tudor” was registered as a brand and boasting Goldilocks-zone dimensions (39mm in diameter, impressively slim at just over 10mm), the 1926 Luna comes in three metallic dial colours: black, blue and champagne, with hands, Arabic numerals and faceted arrow markers in gold, silver and black respectively.
The Tudor 1926 Luna’s moon phase complication takes centre stage at 6 o’clock, featuring a telescope-like aperture with gold or silver (depending on version) lunar discs and stars that track the waxing and waning of the moon.
A date window nestles at 3 o’clock, but the hero is the moonphase indicator 90 degrees later: no crescent-shaped modesty here – instead, a round aperture, framed by a polished bevel, resembling the eyepiece of a telescope serves as a window on the lunar theatrics within. One of Chou’s neat flourishes sees, in the case of the version with the champagne dial, a ‘phantom’ gold disc representing the moon, tucked behind an inky black cutout which, in the brand’s own words, “slowly disappears as the moon waxes and wanes”.
A domed sapphire crystal and a polished and satin-brushed seven-link steel bracelet complete the 1926 Luna’s aesthetic: one which, we’re anticipating, will be met with surprise and praise in equal measure in horological circles. A dress watch with such a quixotic complication as a moonphase, after all, is quite a left turn at the lights for a brand best known for its diving watches, military chronographs and other tool pieces.
Could Tudor be veering towards complications of a less practical, more romantic nature? Perhaps the manufacture’s future is written not so much in the stars – but in a neighbourhood of the cosmos much closer to home. £2,210.
Author: Nick Scott
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