Girard-Perregaux: Cosmos

At 9 o’clock, the sky chart endows Cosmos with its sidereal dimension. Laser-engraved on a blue-tinted titanium globe, it rotates every 23 hours, 58 minutes and 4 seconds, the exact duration of a sidereal day. This sphere focuses on the best-known, most visible stellar formations, those of the zodiac.

Dozens of stars are connected to it, thus tracing the twelve constellations known for more than 2,500 years. They are enhanced with luminescent hydroceramic, thus enabling the Cosmos to fulfil its astronomical vocation even on the darkest nights. Their depiction is one of the paradoxes of astronomy, and of the Cosmos watch, since the constellation to which the Earth belongs is the only one that is not visible, because it is hidden by the blinding sun. Finally, the celestial globe displays the constellation of the zodiac that is invisible at noon on the dial side and the one that is visible at midnight on the caseback side.

At 3 o’clock, a complete globe gives two indications. It allows you to know if the local time zone is in daylight or plunged in darkness. And a 24-hour scale near its equator provides a GMT reading. This second time-zone reading time zone is done via the most sophisticated hand imaginable: a scale model of the earth. Also made of titanium and laser-engraved, this world map features hollow oceans and raised continents. Although it is a viewed from the sky, they represent the earthly dimension of Cosmos.

The Cosmos case with its 48 mm diameter is a world in itself. Carved from beadblasted titanium, it delimits its universe. Its sapphire crystal is a glassbox, a curved chimney-type glass acting like an astronomical telescope. Beneath this non-deforming lens beats a brand-new movement, the Tourbillon manual-winding Calibre GP09320 with 60 hours of power reserve.

The Cosmos case-middle is smooth and crown-free. In its place are four tiny adjustment keys, all located on the back of the case. The sapphire crystal and titanium caseback is pierced with four rods respectively dedicated to winding, time-setting, adjustment of the heavenly globe and that of the terrestrial globe.

The cosmos is the universe as observed from the earth. Cosmos offers a double viewpoint: that of the sky visible from the surface of the globe and that of the globe visible from the surface of its atmosphere. This duality is reflected in the luminous personality of Cosmos. Its nocturnal face differs from its diurnal appearance. Brimming with both meaning and stars, this night-time view shines in the dark, making it hard to imagine the cosmic mechanics underlying this nocturnal scene. (Price €.353.000)