The Extra-Terrestrials: 5 Timepieces with Meteorite Dials
Meteorites are extraterrestrial objects that have passed through the atmosphere and landed on Earth. They can be divided into two different types: stone meteorites and iron meteorites. Most meteorite dials are made from the latter, which make up only four percent of all meteorites. Iron meteorites were born in the core of four-billion-year-old asteroids that slowly cooled over millions of years as they flew through space, thus creating distinctive Widmanstätten patterns or Thomson structures, figures of long nickel-iron crystals inside the meteorites. These crystal structures occur only in meteorites and not on Earth. To make a dial from a meteorite, the stone is first cut into thin slices, then polished and finally treated with acid to make its characteristic patterns visible.
Rolex Cosmograph Daytona
Rolex has often used dials made of meteorite, for example, on the Day-Date and GMT-Master II. New meteorite dials for the Daytona in white, yellow or rose gold were added to the collection in 2021. The subdials remain black for better readability. Automatic in-house Caliber 4130 keeps time inside the 40-mm-diameter precious metal cases. Equipped with a column wheel and vertical coupling, the movement amasses a 72-hour power reserve. Rolex certifies this model, like all its watches, as a ?Superlative Chronometer? and promises that it will neither gain nor lose more than 2 seconds per day.
White gold, 40 mm, automatic manufacture Caliber 4130, chronometer, $29,700.
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