The sun has gone… Total eclipse. Secretly, Moon and Earth had a date. A deep night has fallen even in the subtle details of this watchmaking UFO on my wrist: my AstroLUNA Vicenterra turned to all-black, in a T2 black aventurine version.

By Joël A. Grandjean / JSH® Magazine & Swiss Watch Passport Editor in Chief & Publisher
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It was a rare appointment, torn from the limits of the solar system. I would have to wait 126 years for such a time to happen again, i. e. the lapse of time that separates me from the next adjustment of my timepiece and its moon, which rotates itself every 29.53125 days.

A bit too close to the stars

As for the earth, which is the only bluish touch inside my dial full of kinetics and magic, it turns and turns on itself every 24 hours, sometimes revealing the sketched reliefs of its continents, sometimes the infinite expanses of the oceans. In fact, if each “mini-bubble” possesses its own astral rhythm, it’ s thanks to the micromechanical intelligence of a module invented by the creator Vincent Plomb, founder of the Vicenterra brand, and mounted on a noble Vaucheron a a noble Vaucher Manufacture Fleurier calibre, the Seed 3000.

It is whispered that the artist would have been too close to the stars and that his life, for a few moments, would have been held up by a thread. Thus, after having glimpsed the timelessness of eternity, back on the soil, the man decided to face up to life’s challenge. From then on, he would dedicate his explorer’s life to his roots, these authentic Jura watchmaking terroirs where some chronometric conquests are still possible and where he more than thirty partners and talents who stage his victories are mainly located. The man operates as an accompanied solo artist, in the one-man show mode and as a conductor. On his screen he is creating, adjusting, conceptualizing, placing orders with his suppliers, transmitting technical specifications, and answering requests from his aficionados. A growing community, made up of the early followers as well as a rising number of responsive collectors. All of them are regulars of the byways, who know how to bargain and watch for valuable nuggets. All of them are loyal and touched by the magic and grace of his artworks and his creative impulses.

Vicenterra has launched a trend

It is true that astronomical complications have always occupied the minds of the great watchmakers of both past and present. For those who are masters of the complicating arts of mechanical time-keeping cannot escape the mathematical prowess of calibers and their additional functions when trying to capture pieces of the solar system. And the observation of the celestial bodies titillates the inventiveness to the point that the master watchmaker never hesitates, when an opportunity appears, to take the plunge into the sidereal void and to cross the threshold of astronomy.

Could we say that if Vincent Plomb had not been a precursor, today’s watchmaking would certainly never have seen such a resurgence of small “globes” captured inside watch cases, on the dials’ faces? In any case, it has contributed to it, even if the intrinsic particularity of Vicenterra, and the very name of the brand leads us on the way, is to see the Earth from above. In this, it remains truly original and different.

AstroLUNA T2 Black Aventurine, 2 sets of 25 pieces

While my daydreams evaporate to the rhythm of the ocean waves that tirelessly sweep across this dark beach, the sky plays with its charms. While the sun wanders on the other side of my life, an infinity of sparkles crackles under my starry vault: black adventurous glass, inhabited by existential brilliances, shooting stars and renewed wishes. My feet firmly on the ground, back in the material world, I am still ecstatic about the show that my AstroLUNA T2 Black Aventurine offers me.

It is N°21 and is issued from two special series of 25 pieces each. Personally, I did not opt for the classic version, but for the case design so typical of Vicenterra, shaped like a nugget washed up on black sand, whose sides would have been offered gouge reliefs.