Haute Horlogerie — Ref. AL-88
Astronomia Luxe
Time, laid bare.
The Dial
A perpetual calendar with nothing to hide.
The dial is skeletonised to the millimetre — day, date and month suspended over open gear trains, beneath a moonphase that drifts out of true by a single day every 122 years.
The Movement
407 components. Zero shortcuts.
Twin balance wheels beat in resonance at 21,600 vibrations an hour, set on fifty-two ruby jewels. Every bridge is bevelled, black-polished and finished by hand — even the faces no one will ever see.
The Watchmaker
Assembled by one watchmaker, start to finish.
Eleven months on a single bench in Le Brassus. One signature inside the caseback. Eighty-eight pieces, ever.
Reserve yoursScroll to disassemble
The Manifesto
0
Components
0
Ruby jewels
0 h
Power reserve
0
Pieces, ever
Specifications
Ref. AL-88, on paper.
- Calibre
- AL-407, manufacture, hand-wound
- Frequency
- 3 Hz — 21,600 vph, twin resonant balances
- Power reserve
- 65 hours
- Jewels
- 52 rubies
- Finishing
- Hand-bevelled bridges, black polish, Côtes de Genève
- Perpetual calendar
- Day, date, month, leap year — accurate to 2100
- Moonphase
- Astronomical, deviation of one day in 122 years
- 24-hour indication
- At six o'clock
- Resonance seconds
- Twin balance wheels, visible at four and eight
- Material
- 18k 5N rose gold, polished and satin-brushed
- Diameter
- 42 mm — thickness 12.4 mm
- Crystal
- Domed sapphire, double anti-reflective coating
- Caseback
- Open sapphire, engraved watchmaker's signature
- Water resistance
- 30 m — 3 bar
- Strap
- Hand-stitched Louisiana alligator, chestnut brown
- Buckle
- 18k rose gold pin buckle, engraved wordmark
- Edition
- 88 numbered pieces, allocation by appointment
Calibre AL-407 — suspended mid-assembly
Craftsmanship
In Le Brassus, the Astronomia Luxe is not passed down a line. Each of the eighty-eight pieces is entrusted to a single watchmaker, who begins with a tray of four hundred and seven raw components and ends, some eleven months later, with a finished watch bearing their signature inside the caseback.
The skeletonisation alone consumes six weeks. Material is removed from the mainplate and bridges until only the load-bearing architecture remains — then every new edge is bevelled by hand at forty-five degrees and drawn to a mirror finish with gentian wood and diamond paste.
The twin balance wheels are adjusted to beat in resonance, a phenomenon in which two oscillators, mounted close enough on a shared plate, gradually discipline one another. Regulating them takes patience no machine possesses: three weeks of listening, nudging, and listening again.
Before a piece leaves the bench it is dismantled once more, inspected under twelvefold magnification, reassembled, and observed for thirty-one days across six positions and two temperatures. Only then is the number engraved.
“You do not finish this watch. At some point, it lets you stop.”
E. Marchand — Watchmaker, bench No. 3
The Maison
A century of quiet obsession.
1927
The atelier opens above a pharmacy in Le Brassus, restoring complications other houses had given up on.
1963
First perpetual calendar wristwatch under the Astronomia name — thirty pieces, all accounted for today.
2011
The resonance programme begins: nine years of research into twin-balance timekeeping.
2026
The Astronomia Luxe. Everything the house knows, in one open movement.
The rare skeleton that reads as architecture rather than absence. You do not look through this dial — you look into it.
— Revolution
Resonance done honestly: no marketing physics, just two balances a breath apart, keeping each other true.
— Hodinkee
Proof that restraint is the hardest complication of all.
— The Peacock Room
Private Appointment
Eighty-eight pieces.
One conversation each.
Allocation is by private appointment, in person or by video, with the watchmaker who will build your piece. We will reply within two working days.