Van Cleef & Arpels' Midnight Planétarium timepiece features a mechanical orrery integrated in the watch face. It is only US$214,000. From the company:

The movement of each planet is true to its genuine length of orbit: it will take Saturn over 29 years to make a complete circuit of the dial, Jupiter will take almost 12 years, Mars 687 days, Earth 365 days, Venus 224 days and Mercury 88 days...

44 mm pink gold case; pink gold bezel; aventurine dial, pink gold sun and shooting star, serpentine Mercury, chloromelanite Venus, turquoise Earth, red jasper Mars, blue agate Jupiter, sugilite Saturn. Pink gold crown with sapphire case back. Matte black alligator strap with pink gold folding clasp. Self-winding mechanical movement (Stern Manufacture), equipped with a Christiaan Van der Klaauw module developed exclusively for Van Cleef & Arpels, 48 hour power reserve. Numbered edition

Midnight Planétarium Watch (via @pickover)

Read the rest

I am quite fond of this $29 Apple watch band. Read the rest

Here's Chris Baraniuk on people who make their own mechanical watches, from scratch: an intricate and delicate traditional craft that is, for once, not lost to time.

He started reading forums, researching tools and materials, and checking out where parts could be acquired, such as cases, dials, hands, strap and movement. “It becomes like a big jigsaw puzzle, you try to work out what pieces will fit together,” he says.

Thanks in part to the availability of information over the web, many people just as curious as [Matthew] Wright have embarked on their own home-made watch projects. And some have even launched businesses as a result. But how easy is it to get started?

A quick hit on Google will bring up a wave of results that can kick things off for enthusiasts. There’s the Reddit Watch forum, the TimeZone Watch School, which offers courses via the web for a price, discussions on the WatchUSeek forum, and hundreds of YouTube videos aimed at makers.

People can buy kits for assembling watches or individual parts online with relative ease, too. This is the exact rabbit-hole that Wright fell down when he started researching.

“You see other people who’ve made little changes to watches, they’ve changed dials or whatever, and the next thing, I stumbled across websites where you can buy the cases completely empty,” he recalls.

Pictured here is a watch made by Mike Hamende, who also took the photo.

I once almost managed to put together a Lego kit and I'm still proud of myself. Read the rest

The Geo. Graham Orrery Tourbillon integrates a mechanical solar system model with meteorites as planets. It is just $330,000. From Graham1965's description of the dial:

Blue lacquered dial with Geo.Graham Tourbillon Orrery inscription at 4 o'clock 3 scales - from the outside to the centre: hours and minutes scale, Gregorian calendar (365.25 days - Earth indicates the date), Zodiac scale (12 astrological signs - Earth indicates the zodiac sign). Counter-clockwise reading. Solar system: The Moon (from NWA4881 meteorite, Ø0.90 mm) The Earth (Kingman Turquoise, Ø3.20 mm) Mars (Tissint meteorite, Ø1.70 mm) The Sun (pink gold (18K) - hand-engraved Tourbillon bridge with 2 Phoenix heads inspired by George Graham decoration and a close set diamond at the centre (Ø2.50mm). Counter-clockwise reading. Off-centre skeleton pink gold (18K) hands with black Super-LumiNova coating

(via Uncrate) Read the rest

This guy said his sergeant recommended that he buy a Rolex GMT Master Model when he was stationed in Germany. He was happy to learn that it was appraised at a much higher price than the $120 he paid to buy it in 1960. Read the rest

The 44mm Klok watch started life as a crowdfunding campaign and has now graduated to full-fledged article of commerce, priced between €400-430. Read the rest

Boing Boing has teamed up with MorningSave to offer this deeply discounted collection of House of Marley watches!

House of Marley is committed to building superior, eco-friendly products, and every sale supports the Marley family's charitable organization, 1Love.

I really like the wood accents on these watches!

Boing Boing & MorningSave's House of Marley watch collection Read the rest

Dan Spitz, the lead guitarist for thrash metal outfit Anthrax for many years, is now a professional watchmaker. (Great Big Story)

Read the rest

I thought it would be impossible for an eBook to inspire me to get me working on a watch. Read the rest

Thinkgeek's $60 Tesla Steampunk Watch has it all: clock-winding key, silvery vacuum tubes (they light with an elaborate switch), brass housing, steam-pressure dial second-hand, and a sturdy leather strap. Read the rest

The posh Pinnacle analog timepiece from Nico Gerard integrates an Apple Watch into the bracelet. Prices start at $9,300 for the basic stainless steel model, but the 18k gold Sunrise edition, at $112,000, is obviously the one to get. Read the rest

The ladies' fashion novelty became popular among British soldiers during the Boer War, recounts Uri Friedmen, a practice that spread during World War I. Read the rest

Don't tell anyone, but I plan to break into the Musée du Louvre and snatch this 17th century skull watch made by Jean Rousseau, grandfather of philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

Montre en forme de tête de mort Milieu du XVIIe siècle Genève Argent, laiton doré D. : 5,50 cm. ; H. : 4,50 cm.

"Montre en forme de tête de mort" (Thanks, Michael-Anne Rauback!) Read the rest

Tokyoflash's Kisai Night Vision Wood LED Watch builds on their earlier work with beautiful, carved-wood bracelets, adding a wooden face backed with powerful LEDs whose glow can be seen through the smooth vegetable matter. It's a very futuristic look indeed. The watch charges with USB, and comes in sandal or maple, and it has a preprogrammed LED dance it does twice a day as a little show-offy gesture. They're $150 each.

Kisai Night Vision Wood LED Watch Read the rest

Is your life so complicated that you must strap a small machine to your wrist, learn a new interface, and wear this device during almost all waking hours to avoid missing appointments?

Maybe not: Many of us stopped wearing watches years ago in favor of glancing at our phones.

But Samsung's Galaxy Gear is no ordinary watch. This $299 device, unveiled early last month, functions as both external monitor and peripheral for its new Galaxy Note 3 Android smartphone--the only phone officially compatible with it, although Samsung plans to add Gear support to such recent Android models as its Galaxy Note II, Galaxy S III and Galaxy S 4. Read the rest

The Hyetis Crossbow is a forthcoming Swiss-made smart watch outfitted with a 41 megapixel camera, LED flash, and WiFi, Bluetooth and NFC, according to the company. It will sell for $1,200. Read the rest