This astronomical masterpiece from Popular Jacob & Co. is better than its predecessor (astronomy), but to fully understand this latest astronomical model, we must first understand its history. The first Astronomia version was used as a star map, accurately tracking the time and rotation of the Earth, as well as conditions around the Earth. It features hours, minutes, seconds, a tourbillon, and representations of the Earth and Moon rotating on spokes around a central axis (both visible under a broad sapphire dome). The Astronomia has sparked a wave of conservatism in its latest watch that has attracted many supporters of the Swiss watchmaking business, but it has also met some cynics because the watch is such an unconventional timepiece people.
Fortunately, perfect Jacob & Co. stopped most of the criticism with their new and improved Astronomia Sky. This timepiece includes a sidereal time display that follows the movement of the stars of the constellation. There has never been another watch as fascinating as the sidereal time complication, tried only on the most prestigious and complicated watches in history. According to Luca Soprana, founder and chairman of Jacob & Co., a watch development specialist unveiled in 2014, “Jacob Arabo’s idea was actually to create a kind of planetarium where all the stars and The planets are all moving around . . . ”
The Astronomia Sky‘s star map is located under an inverted dome above the movement, a roaming oval representing the stars above Geneva’s latitude. The dome gradually rotates at a rate of about 1 degree per day relative to Earth’s orbit around the sun, making a sidereal day (about 23 hours, 56 minutes, 4.1 seconds) different from a solar day. Luca Soprana said: “The great thing about working with Jacob is that he is not a watchmaker at all. He cares about the aesthetic quality of his work and asks for things that a technician would never ask for. He It required a completely different approach, and for me it was very interesting to work that way.”