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“Don’t tell me the sky’s the limit. There’s footprints on the moon.” CIGA Design seems to have taken Canadian country singer Paul Brant’s lyrics to heart. The brand’s new Moon Walker Edition watch celebrates Neil Armstrong’s historic first moon walk with a 3D-sculpted dial of the lunar surface and a unique method of displaying the time.
CIGA took NASA’s ultra-high-resolution imagery and used 0.01mm CNC micro-engraving to create an accurate, textured, topography of the Moon. The result is an incredibly vivid rendition of the lunar surface in the watch complete with craters, ridges, and Armstrong’s iconic footprint at 0.67°N, 23.47°E, though you’ll need a 10× magnifying glass to see it.
The method the watch uses to display time is equally as captivating. A miniature astronaut replaces traditional hands, floating around the sculpted moon indicating the hours while a minute ring moves asynchronously below the moon man, displaying the minutes. CIGA fans will recognize this time telling technique from the brand’s release Blue Planet, which earned laurels at the prestigious Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève in 2021.
The drifting astronaut is crafted from cast copper, then sandblasted, vintage silver-coated, and hand-polished. The process takes more than five hours from start to finish and CIGA says out of every 10 moon men produced, only about 3 pass the quality checks and can be used. But the finished sculptures realize the beauty of weightlessness and humankind’s destiny in the heavens.
On the wrist the Moon Walker is svelter than its 46mm size thanks to the lugless designed titanium case and won’t overwhelm the wrist. The curvaceous sapphire crystal adds to the sculptural effect of the watch but it adds quite a bit of thickness. The resulting piece is 17.05mm tall, so best to wear it with loose shirt cuffs or short sleeves.
The watch comes on a fluororubber strap outfitted with a deployant clasp, for added security. The caseback is engraved with Armstrong’s legendary quote: “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,” as well as his footprint. There’s also a window to the 26 jewel, Swiss-made D-09 automatic caliber, which beats at frequency of 28,800 vph, and offers a power reserve of 41 hours.
Pre-orders for the Moon Walker will open at cigadesign.com on September 10 for $1,699. But early birds can receive $200 off for subscribing for updates.
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