Christiaan van der Klaauw Planetarium Dunes of Mars

Quick specs Christiaan van der Klaauw Planetarium Dunes of Mars
Price:
€ 49.500 | approx. CHF 49’000 | approx. $ 54,000 | approx. £ 43,000 (steel)
€ 70.000 | approx. CHF 68’000 | approx. $ 76,000 | approx. £ 60,000 (rose gold)
€ 75.300 | approx. CHF 74’000 | approx. $ 82,000 | approx. £ 65,000 (white gold)
Size: 40 mm
Reference:
CKPM3305 (steel)
CKPM1105 (rose gold)
CKPM7705 (white gold) – each limited to 6 pieces

The Christiaan van der Klaauw Planetarium Dunes of Mars is a new variant of the earlier released mechanical planetarium by CVDK. It is the smallest mechanical heliocentric planetarium in the world, and this limited edition focusses on the planet Mars. It is available in stainless steel, red gold, or white gold.

Inside the 40-millimeter case shines an aventurine glass dial executed in a brown-ish red. It is unmistakenly the color of Mars as you might have seen on photos of NASA send from their Mars Rover. But not only the dial color is a highlight, of course the planetarium is as well. Where the “basic” model of the Christiaan van der Klaauw Planetarium shows a colored sun and earth, here Mars is also colored, in red.

Mars orbits the sun every 686.98 days, also on this watch

If you zoom-in on Mars on the planetarium you won’t see it moving, however it does move all the time. It only takes 686.98 days for Mars to make a full rotation around the sun, also on this dial. Almost twice as long as planet earth that takes 365.24 days.

Mercury is the quickest turner around the sun with 87.97 days. Saturn is the slowest as it is the most far away from the sun, taking 29.46 years for a full orbit. So by the time you can afford this watch and keep it running as long as you live, you will notice a maximum of 2 full turns of Saturn on the dial of your watch during your whole lifetime. Amazing, isn’t it?

The Christiaan van der Klaauw Planetarium Dunes of Mars has a power reserve of 96 hours

You don’t want to adjust the watch and play with the settings to calibrate the orbit of the planets on the planetarium. So keep it running, which means that within every 96 hours you have to wear it for a while or keep it winded in a winder. As the Soprod movement on which CVDK builds their in-house planetarium module, provides 96 hours of power reserve with its two barrels.

You should almost forget that the Christiaan van der Klaauw Planetarium Dunes of Mars also shows the date and month at the 12 o’clock position of the dial. This sub dial is rhodium plated, just like the planetarium at 6, for a nice contrast with the Mars-like background.