分类： 网络与安全
2014-10-15 17:43:17
I happen to love like this. Take a little inspiration from antiquity, mix in traditional horology and add some modern design. Before you know it, you have some totally interesting and wild timepiece that does not fit into any particular box. This is the 2013 limited edition Hublot Antikythera SunMoon watch. Part calendar watch, part astronomical watch, this is horological obsession at its best.
Do you recall the Tribute to Antikythera watch? In 2011 Hublot debuted this masterpiece of complexity as a tribute to the 2,000 year old (yes, two thousand) Greek Antikythera mechanical device that was found underwater off the coast of Greece in the early 20th century. The original device was a calendar of sorts and is the oldest known mechanical device to exist. Hublot's in-house mastermind Mathias Buttet made it a personal project to recreate the mechanism of the Antikythera in the size of a timepiece. He did so and Hublot produced just four of them - never to be officially sold aside from at one or two special auctions. So now, for 2013, Hublot honors their own Antikythera creation with a simpler (but not simple) version called the Antikythera SunMoon. This one will be sold, but Hublot will only produce 20 of them.
Hublot hasn't given us the size of the case, but as you can see this isn't a small . Nor is it unwearable either. The cushion-shaped case is very interesting, and a new design in what is still relatively pure Hublot DNA. The case detailing is really interesting, and does offer the illusion of looking into the portal of a machine. The case is produced from titanium, and you can see the iconic Hublot "H" screws used in the corners of the case. Further, the Antikythera SunMoon is also known as the Hublot MP-08, as it is part of their "Masterpiece" watch collection.
One of the most interesting elements of the design is that the Antikythera has two crowns. And from a design perspective you can see how the crown guards lift up like wings to allow you to operate them. This watch literally wants to be Batman. Or maybe they are ears? The movement is actually pretty simple to use. Basically one crown is used for setting the time and winding the manually wound movement, and the other crown is exclusively used to adjust the calendar settings. The movement is entirely in-house made and known as the Hublot caliber HUB9008. Before I forget, the movement does have a tourbillon. Yup, you didn't think Hublot would leave out a tourbillon did you? It is always a good time for a tourbillon. You knew that right? Elements of the movement are seen through the skeletonized dial.
Probably the least favorable part of the watch is trying to tell the time. Under all the cool stuff - namely the astronomical calendar hands - are not super easy to see hands for the hours and minutes. Having said that, I've seen worse, and reading the time isn't terrible. This isn't going to be your daily wear (or is it?). Actually, it would be interesting to wear this watch (or something like it) for a full year and see how it influences your life.
OK, so let's discuss where the "Antikythera" part comes in. Aside from some similar calendar information, the Antikythera element is more thematic. It is possible however that there are elements from the original Tribute to Antikythera movement in the SunMoon. The large "constellation decorated" central hand serves two purposes. First, it has a window that shows the phase of the moon. Neat that the moon phase indicator moves around the dial (albeit very slowly). The hand itself takes a full year to travel around the entire dial. It is a sort of multipurpose calendar hand, which when used in tandem with the solar hand, offers some interesting calendar data.
The larger dial hand can be thought of as the "sky position" hand. The idea is to indicate how our perspective of the sky changes over the year. What is being tracked here is the zodiac periods. No, this isn't the first watch to show what zodiac sign we are currently in, but it is the first to show how they relate to one another in terms of lengths. Hublot is quite proud of the fact that it shows the movement from one zodiac period to another, along with being able to reference their duration. That was actually quite interesting.
In addition to the large sky hand is a solar hand whose role it is to indicate earth's relative position to the sun, which in our daily lives is referenced by months. Thus (assuming you have good eyes) you can use the sun hand to not only read the month, but also the date. Since both the sky and sun hand move together, it makes sense that the left crown on the watch controls everything. I felt that was a quite useful design feature of the Antikythera SunMoon timepiece.
Fascinating to look at, this "Neo Antikythera" watch is very impressive, but was pretty much overshadowed by the also for 2013 Hublot MP-05 La Ferrari timepiece the brand released in the same year. Since Hublot debuted its "Masterpiece" range a few years ago they haven't ceased to inspire me and continue to produce some really impressive stuff. Lofty and a little bit "out there" the MP collection watches are exactly what you want as a supplement to more commercial luxury watch fare - and Hublot performs this role very well.
