Today we’re looking at Laurent Ferrier’s two new additions to their Classic – the Annual Calendar Moonphase, which has the brand’s first (double moon) moonphase complication. Forming a part of the permanent collection, it comes in a 40mm case (thickness of 12.9mm) with water resistance of 30m in two variants – a stainless-steel model with a gray-blue opaline dial or an 18k 5N pink gold model with a vertically satin-finish silver dial.

The case has a “ball-shaped” crown, the day corrector for the annual calendar is at 10 o’clock and the moonphase corrector, at 8:30. The other functions apart from the hours and minutes are a small seconds at 6 o’clock, a centre hand for the annual calendar’s date, recessed bevelled date and month windows at 12 o’clock, moon phase at 6 o’clock, and a power reserve indicator on the back.

The red gold model comes with red accents courtesy of the date hand and ‘31’ on the date display (the other numbers are petrol blue), whereas the ‘other’ colour on the stainless-steel model is blue, with pastel blue numbers and date hand, and azure ‘31’. The hour circle has Roman numerals and baton-shaped transfer indices in either white or anthracite.

So let’s look at the moonphase indication, which is situated within the small seconds sub dial (the small seconds hand is either white lacquered or ruthenium-treated white gold, depending on the variant). The first thing to note is that it is a double moon indicator and covers both Northern and Southern hemispheres, as indicated by the ‘N’ and ‘S’.

It consists of a dark blue moon disc made of Murano aventurine glass which is engraved to create the moons and the stars, after which the other decorations are hand-painted in white. The moons and stars are hand-filled with Super-LumiNova then fired at high temperatures, before going through a final engraving stage where the moons’ craters are hand-sculpted. The disc is topped with translucent petrol blue enamel which hides or reveals the moon disc underneath in line with waxing and waning. When it is night, the two moons glow through the translucent enamel.

It is powered by the manually-wound in-house LF126.02 (basically redesigning the existing LF126.01 to add the moonphase, power reserve indicator, and with some other improvements as well, resulting in more than 30 new parts) which beats at 21,600 VPH and has a power reserve of 80 hours. Laurent Ferrier is known for its movement finishing, so for those who want to know, there is a long blade ratchet pawl with a polished hand-crafted bassiné finish, bridges have rhodium-treated Côtes de Genève, the main plate has circular graining, and there is of course hand bevelling and polishing.

Laurent Ferrier’s new Classic Annual Calendar Moonphase comes on either a dark grey Nubuck leather strap or on a brown calf leather strap with Alcantara lining and a metal-matched pin buckle. With a clean classic vintage-inspired look, this is the kind of watch that is designed to be of broad appeal. The RRP is CHF 70,000 in steel and CHF 80,000 in gold (excluding taxes).

Categories: Hands-on, Laurent Ferrier, Watch Profile, watches, Watches & Wonders Geneva 2024