ASTRONOMIA MAESTRO

Name: Astronomia Maestro
Brand: Jacob & Co.

Celestial bodies and space exploration have long driven Jacob Arabo's creativity. In 2014, he translated his intimate passion into the ambitious Astronomia concept, a wrist-sized model of a planetary system and its constant motion. Astronomia Maestro is the most complex iteration of the original concept, with a higher degree of celestial realism. The Astronomia Maestro case is designed like an astronomer's observatory. A vast sapphire dome on top and a streamlined gold frame surround a single-block, full sapphire caseband. Their transparency offers a galaxy-wide view. Astronomia Maestro is a celebration of space, at a level of complexity and beauty that makes it unique. Astronomia Maestro features the Milky Way, hand-painted on the blue and starry aventurine base. It features an astronaut, floating in zero gravity, exploring the inside of the rotating movement. It showcases the largest Earth, rotating along, and a diamond-moon. And for once in the Astronomia collection, the hour and minute dial sits in the middle, above it all. It signifies that the passing of time is the maestro of us all.

From a creative concept to design inspiration. To the first stroke of a pencil through hundreds of iterations. A timepiece like no other comes to life. Exceptional crafts such as miniature painting and miniature sculptures spin hand in hand with the most elaborate movement structure.

Creating a miniature, rotating, mechanical solar system required going beyond all preconceptions, innovating and breaking barriers, like space exploration. Caliber JCAM11A is one of the most advanced and complex movements in the Jacob & Co. catalog. The main technical feature that makes Astronomia Maestro the rarest of achievements is its minute repeater with carillon function. There are only a handful of such timepieces, and Maestro is the only one where it's coupled with such a sophisticated set of complications. The integration of so many components, so many functions, most of them excursive to Jacob & Co., is a balancing act similar to floating in zero gravity.

535 components. One full movement rotation in 10 minutes. Minute repeater with carillon. Triple-axis flying tourbillon. Zero-gravity astronaut. World-time indication. Spinning diamond moon. 50-hour power reserve.

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Astronomia Maestro blends constant motion and extreme precision. It is a choreography of celestial bodies that are actually complications, achieved by exclusive, hand-wound Caliber JCAM11A.

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THE ROTATING PLATFORM

The most visually striking feature of Astronomia Maestro is its structure. From the blued titanium back-dial emerges a vertical platform. It revolves on its own axis in 10 minutes. Its constant motion powers all the movement's functions and indications.

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THE TRIPLE-AXIS FLYING TOURBILLON

At the end of one satellite arm hangs a double-axis tourbillon. It's held inside an openworked carriage. It revolves on two axes, one in 60 seconds, the other in 90 seconds. Since it travels along with the central platform, this adds a third axis, with a 10 minute rotation period. With a single attachment point, this is a flying tourbillon.

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THE CARILLON MINUTE REPEATER

Using the slide on the left flank, Astronomia Maestro tells time with sound. The minute repeater function is one of the most prestigious ones. Jacob & Co. chose a special variant. Caliber JCFM01 is a carillon minute repeater : instead of chiming the quarters of hours on 2 music notes, it has 3 gongs and 3 hammers to create a more elaborate sequence. These gongs, metal rods bent around the movement, are exceptionally long as they circle the movement. They criss-cross above the baseplate, making the entire chiming sequence perfectly visible, a fundamental requirement of Astronomia.

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THE WORLD-TIME EARTH

Featuring Earth is a staple of all Astronomias. In this case, it is larger, heavier and more detailed than any other. Since it's large enough and it completes one revolution in 24 hours, it is a world time indicator. An hour-scale allows to read the time it is in all visible regions of the globe. It has its own setting crown on the caseback.

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THE DIAMOND MOON

Astronomia Maestro features a moon. That's the planet chosen to represent the high jewelry part of Jacob & Co.'s identity. This moon is actually a 1 ct. white diamond. Carved from a large rough of extremely high quality, it receives the exclusive, spherical, 288-facet, Jacob-cut. This moon spins on its own axis in 60 seconds.

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THE ZERO-GRAVITY ASTRONAUT

A 0.2 gram sculpture, made and painted by hand, this astronaut seems to be lost in space. He is revolving around Astronomia Maestro every 10 minutes, and spins on his own axis in 90 seconds.

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Astronomia Maestro is a statement. Of the love one has for space, for watchmaking, for breaking boundaries. It combines the most elaborate classic complications, with the daring spin Jacob & Co. puts on classics. Like this timepiece, like its owner, they live in a different dimension.