Watches

The Perrelet Big Central Moonphase watch was designed last year. And today, it is reintroduced in titanium. Most people are familiar with it.

Resurrected only six year ago, when the brand was sold to Miguel Rodriguez of the Festina Group, Perrelet is doing its best to reestablish itself as a haute horlogerie watchmaker. Of course, they still use third-party calibers to power their watches. However, those are unique, built to specs jobs, and, truth be told, at this time their timepieces are the most elegant and bright among the second-tier players.

The Perrelet Big Central Moonphase was introduced a year ago at Basel 2009 industry event. Unlike most moonphase watches that allot to the complication a pretty modest part of the dial, the Big Central Moonphase does just the opposite: the huge white disk that represents the moon takes more real estate on the dial than an average moonphase subdial as a whole and it travels its path across the star-stricken sky from 9 to 3 o'clock.

In fact, the first thing that you notice while stealing a glance of the watch, is the complication, not the dial itself or even the hour and minute hands.

Maybe, trying to partly to subdue the complication, Perrelet decided to present the 2010 model with new, much more energetic and aggressive-looking dial. While the first versions of the watch featured rather classic, almost Barocco-styled, faces, the new iteration of the timekeeper introduces a completely reworked dial that looks very organic, almost like an extension of the brand's trademark case.

The watch comes equipped with the P-211 calibre, which is made to order by Perrelet's partners-MHVJ (Manufacture horlog?re de la Vall?e de Joux.)

Just like the last year's Chopard L.U.C Lunar Big Date chronometer watch, the Perrelet Big Central Moonphase's movement sports a moon-bearing disk with whole 135 teeth. In theory, it means that the moonphase complication will not need correction for about 122 years. Nice touch if you plan to pass this watch to your still unborn grand-children.

Of course, the mechanism gets its power from a customized winding rotor, which is built of four parts, fitted on ball-bearings and features a sand-blasted Perrelet logo. The rotor is perfectly visible through a transparent display back, which is covered with an AR-treated mineral glass.

Well, while the antiglare coating is truly welcomed here, the brand that is positioned as a competitor for such ultra-premium names as Ulysse Nardin, Chronoswiss, Hublot, and Zenith should have spent a couple of dollars more and ordered a sapphire crystal, which is less prone to scratches and looks better in general.

The 43.5 mm titanium case with its sapphire crystal slightly tinted to provide even more mesmerizing view at the slow progress of the moon disk across the night sky. This is a nice timepiece. And the black rubber strap makes it look elegant.