Christiaan van der Klaauw Aquarius Planetarium

Astronomy – time in its purest form – is the source of inspiration for the well-known Dutch watchmaker and member of the prestigious AHCI, Christiaan van der Klaauw. And  now it’s combined with an engraving of the well-known Dutch master-engraver Kees Engelbarts. 

Christiaan van der Klaauw is specialized solely in the design and manufacturing of astronomical watches and now presents the first piece in a series of twelve unique watches: The Aquarius Planetarium. It is based on Christiaan van der Klaauw’s famous Planetarium watch, featuring the world’s first and smallest mechanical planetarium, showing the cycles around the Sun of the planets Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn.

The solid gold dial shows one of the twelve constellations, in this case Aquarius, and is engraved by master-engraver Kees Engelbarts. The case is made of platinum and measures 40 mm in diameter, and is fitted with a sapphire crystal on both sides. Only one watch will be made of each zodiac sign. Every watch will be a ‘pièce unique’ and a collector’s item by its very nature. The other zodiac signs will only be made on special order, according to Christiaan van der Klaauw.

The Aquarius Planetarium is equipped with the world’s smallest heliocentric planetarium and displays the orbits of Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn around the Sun. Centrally positioned are the hour, minute and seconds hand and to the lower right corner is a month indicator.

The ‘normal’ Planetarium (see photo left) also features a date display, positioned at the lower left side of the dial. At the same place where the date display is, the Aquarius Planetarium shows the unique engraving of the zodiac sign aquarius. The Planetarium is actually one of the most famous creations of Christiaan van der Klaauw and is an ultimate demonstration of precision.

Inside ticks caliber CK 1196, which is a modified self-winding movement, with an in-house Planetarium module.

The back of the watch shows an incredibly fine rotor, wich is based on the theme of the Planetarium, in which the planets of our solar system are visible.

The rotor is made of 18-carat gold and hand-engraved by Jochen Benzinger.

The Aquarius Planetarium and versions showing other zodiac signs, will be available for € 79,500 Euro (including taxes).

At the Christiaan van der Klaauw website, they created a flash animation that shows exactly how the planets of the planetarium orbit around the sun. There you can also find more info about the entire collection and points of sale.

Some final words… personally I would suggest to use blued hands, which improve the ease of reading the time, however the plain hands match better in terms of color. So I guess that’s a matter of taste. All together the Christiaan van der Klaauw offers a lot: the world’s first and smallest planetarium in a wrist watch, a fair sized (40 mm) platinum case and a solid gold dial that is engraved by Kees Engelbarts. Two Dutch masters have joined their forces for this unique timepiece.