SJX Watches
Heavenly Horology: Understanding Astronomical Complications
All timekeeping is astronomical in origin. Perhaps for this reason, clocks and watches capable of reproducing the movements of the heavens in miniature have long ranked among the highest expressions of horology. Astronomical complications mechanically encode vast celestial cycles into concise visual displays. Such mechanisms featured prominently in the collections of European monarchs and nobles, and later those of the industrialists and financiers who succeeded them as horology’s most ambitious patrons. The Vacheron Constantin Copernicus Celestial Spheres depicts the elliptical orbit of the Earth around the Sun, resulting in a calendar of sorts read against the signs of the zodiac. Yet many astronomical complications are based on principles that have been understood for thousands of years, and are often simpler — mechanically speaking — than more commonplace complications like chronographs. The tension between their relatively straightforward operation and their profound historical meaning makes them difficult to place within the traditional hierarchy of complications. This calls into question whether such a hierarchy even exists. Time comes from above Long before the development of mechanical clocks, humans attempted to relate the passage of time to observations of the heavens. The rising and setting of the Sun, the changing phase of the Moon, and the return of the seasons helped determine when to plant, harvest, travel and perform religious ceremonies. A fragment ...
![Happenings: Join Us For This Month's Hodinkee Happy Hour [RSVP Here]](https://hodinkee.imgix.net/uploads/images/73ccca0a-39f0-4d33-b6d7-ded308570be7/hhh-hero-1.jpg?ixlib=rails-1.1.0&fm=jpg&q=55&auto=format&usm=12&w=2000)
