Independent Swiss watch brand Les Ateliers Louis Moinet recently revealed an out-of-the-world timepiece in Geneva at the Musée d’Histoire des Sciences which has found its way into the Guinness World Records. Called Cosmopolis, the bespoke flying tourbillon timepiece presents 12 fragments from 12 different meteorites on the dial, earning itself a place in the most prominent record book. It has been awarded with the title of the “Most meteorite inserts in a watch” by the Guinness World Records. “Even more than a great watchmaking work, Cosmopolis is a historic and scientific journey, a microcosm of the macrocosm,” said Jean-Marie Schaller, owner and creative director of Louis Moinet.
Schaller spent 20 years collecting the incredibly rare meteorites and decided to craft an unmatched timepiece to showcase the beauty of the space rocks. Each of the 12 meteorites, some of which are in fact older than Earth, has its own story. The rarest of them all is a lunar meteorite which is placed right at the center of the dial. The other most captivating space rock is a black chondrite which has been carefully placed in the back of the tourbillon cage.
The other meteorite fragments are placed in 10 disks that form the markers around the dial. One of them is the Allende meteorite from a meteorite shower in Mexico which is estimated to be 4.567 billion years old and the oldest rock in the solar system. The 18-karat 5N rose gold case measures 40.7mm in diameter and houses a hand-wound movement that offers 96 hours of power reserve. The bespoke timepiece is priced at CHF 225,000 (about $245,000).
