Jaeger LeCoultre Moonphase Complication

Jaeger LeCoultre is a lunatic. In the last seven years, the Swiss watchmaker has unleashed 40 variants of its Rendez-Vous collection. All but a few models (e.g., the Rendez-Vous Date Small and the tourbillons) keep owners appraised of the moon’s relative relationship to the Earth via a moonphase complication. The Dazzling Rendez-Vous Night & Day above is yours for . . .

a cool quarter mil. luxurylaunches.com gives us the 411:

The bezel of the Dazzling Rendez-Vous Moon is decorated with 108 diamonds, forming two concentric rings around the watch case . . . The fully-set bracelet is also a masterpiece of the jewelry crafts with a total of 310 diamonds wrapping the entire length.

The moonlight-white mother-of-pearl dial also use diamonds as hour markers on the other hour ring which encloses applied pink gold numerals by another inner circle of 47 diamonds.

Ice-loving well-heeled astrology-minded horologists need apply. After people buy Dr. Dre’s $1m diamond-studded headphones. So sure. Why not?

Because the moonphase could well be the most useless complication in the watchmaking world – although the yacht timer certainly gives it a run for the money.

Unless you’re into astrology (and can’t be bothered to dial-up an astrological app on your smartphone) or planning a nighttime assassination, who cares if he moon is waxing or waning?

I reckon the moonphase complication is popular – seen here in JLC’s Moonphase Collection  – because it’s a soothing reminder to urban dwellers that they live in the natural world.

The moonphase complication might also work on a subconscious level – reminding wearers that we may have mastered nature enough not to starve to death but we could be still be wiped out by the kind of asteroid that whacked the earth and created the moon.

Or it could be just because it’s pretty mere bagatelle, as they say. Anyway, here’s a JLC Rendez-Vous timepiece introduced this very day called the Celestial.

Not a moonphase complication, obviously. But a funky timepiece that takes conspicuous consumption to infinity – and beyond. I’m a cancer,  by the way.