ochs und junior has released the latest in their line of celestial-inspired watches, this time with a movement and complication ten years in the making. To look at it, the luna sole couldn’t be anything besides an ochs und junior and uses a series of rotating discs to convey the relative position of the moon, sun, and earth.
When I was first getting into watches in the early 2010s, the watch industry — in particular the Swiss watch industry — was experiencing a very real bout of homogeneity. Coming out of the recession, and with the real boom times still ahead of them, it felt like brands were (mostly) looking to play it safe and ride out the stormy weather. ochs und junior was one of the first brands I came across that was, in a big way, playing their own game.
While the luna sole is a pure expression of that approach, it’s also the thinnest and lightest ochs und junior we’ve seen yet, and demonstrates a clear evolution from the early days of the brand without sacrificing any of the brutalist industrial design the brand is known for. The luna sole measures in at 40mm across and 9mm thick, with a lug-to-lug barely longer than the diameter of the watch. More to the point, the grade 5 titanium case is light — the watch head without the strap is only 40 grams, about the equivalent of a handful of quarters.
Inside the luna sole, you’ll find a modified version of the ETA 2892, initially conceptualized and designed by ochs und junior founder Ludwig Oechslin a decade ago. The key feature is a display representing the relative position of the moon, earth, and sun. This feature is possible thanks to a custom module made up of only 6 pieces. Rotating overlapping discs offer wearers a representation of the movements of the moon and sun, with the sun’s disc rotating once every 24 hours, and the moon’s disc traveling around the dial once every 29.5 days.
It’s a little clunky to explain, but once you spend some time looking at the watch, it all makes sense. Surrounding this central complexity is the signature spiraling date display, something that should be familiar to those who know the brand.
The luna sole is available in two variations. The first of these is a decidedly grayscale option, with a dial in sandblasted anthrazit, and varying shades of gold leaf, gray gold, and rhodium making up the rest of the dial. Alternately, the second option introduces some color thanks to the inclusion of a rose gold sun, rose gold markers, and rose gold hands with a sandblasted white rhodium dial, and accents in white gold and rhodium. As part of the ochs line, the luna sole is not available for customization.
The ochs und junior luna sole is available to pre-order now, with delivery beginning in three months for CHF 6,000, with a 50% prepayment required. ochs und junior
