Little did John Arnold who founded Arnold & Sons ever reckon that this company he started in London at 1764 will one day be a world-renowned watch company.
The unique back of the Grand Tourbillon Perpetual and its moon phase indication.Appointed to join the Court of the British King George III, John Arnold quickly realized that his true talent lay in his ability to invent timepieces for the British ships. This discovery enabled John Arnold to invent the first ever pocket chronometer, (Nº36). He also invented many horological breakthroughs like the helical balance spring, the bimetallic spring, and the spring detent escapement.
Arnold and Sons possesses a rich history of leading great achievements in the field of Marine chronometers enacting and passing strict rules in the manufacturing process of maritime timepieces, as well implementing strict guidelines on how each and every watch are tested on land and on water. Arnold and Sons continued to produce maritime clocks and watches for ships and many notable British explorers such as Captain Cook and Dr. Livingstone to name a few, who depended on these timepieces during their greatest expeditions.
The Arnold and Sons legacy continues today with the same passion for the traditional navigation focus through the British Masters, a Swiss Company founded in 1995 by Eric Loth. The British Masters continue to bring forth beautiful time pieces to honor the world of navigation and travel.
TRUE MOON
True Moon, their current collection has a few famous collections with complicated movements that reflect the technical expertise and innovative strength of John Arnold. One of which is the True Moon. The Moon is called Luna by the Romans, Selene and Artemis by the Greeks, and many other names in other mythologies, simply True Moon to Arnold and Sons.
The Blue Planet, on the other hand, has been known since the prehistoric times and considered as an inspiration to intellects, poets, scientists and watchmakers. The constant transformations of the moon continue to captivate and mesmerize horologists thus having them attempt to replicate the moon phases on a watch dial. Some have failed while others showed inaccuracies in its precision and rendering.
The True Moon watch which Arnold and Sons spearheaded follows a goal of bestowing to its owner an honest to goodness representation of the planet on its dial. The mechanism of the watch is capable of keeping the precise movements of the different phases of the moon. The horologists were able to duplicate this extraordinary achievement by calculating the exact synodal period; which is the time it takes between successive new moons this corresponds to 29 days, 12 hours and 44 minutes (708 Hours and 44 minutes).
The True Moon is an attractive watch. It is romantic, poetic and functionally interesting. Using an Arnold-modified commodity Swiss automatic movement, the True Moon displays the primary time with the date indicator and the crown on the 3 o’clock position. The moon phase dial is clearly visible at the 6 o’clock position. With a 46mm diameter, the True Moon is not small, but it doesn’t wear like a serving dish either. The watch has a polished stainless steel case with a cambered sapphire crystal. The watch is relatively thin. The beauty of the True Moon, however, lies in the face of the watch itself, it is tasteful and loaded with such presence. The dial has a blue base with a wavy guilloche motif, the center of the dial is midnight blue with transferred yellow stars. The strap is blue crocodile and it is water resistant to 160 feet or 50 meters.
HORNET WORLDTIMER
Another timepiece from the collection of Arnold and Sons is the Hornet Worldtimer. It is a complex timepiece that has functional simplicity. The Hornet Worldtimer is a jewel in itself. Its shows distinct sophistication with six hands and pointers which is center mounted on the dial resembling the propeller of an airplane. The watch though with its six hands maintains the brand’s trademark of being easy to understand – enabling its owner to easily use the multiple functions of the watch with ease.
Hornet Worldtimer is a fascinating watch. At first glance, it can be intimidating because of its 47mm diameter 18k rose gold case with a cambered sapphire crystal. Its rose gold case is recognized by the three crowns and push pieces arranged at the 9 and 10 o’clock on one side and 2 and 3 o’clock at the other. The time setting and date setting crown is located at the 3 o’clock while the time zone push piece is at the 2 o’clock position. The second time zone or solar time adjustment crown is located at the 10 o’clock while the world time bezel outer bezel ring rotating adjustment is at the 9 o’clock position.
The watch uses an automatic exclusive Arnold and Sons movement. Due to today’s busy lifestyle in the pursuit of professional demands and leisure quests, the double disc date display located at the 5 o’clock position and month circle which aids in keeping track of this important data.
To distinguish the different information indicated on the watch, the colors on the dial are contrasting; it has a black base with segmented white triangular equation of time. The equation of time is to keep its owner in touch with a truly “universal” time beyond earthly time zones. Upon inspection, one would also notice screws on the display to mount the face of the watch to its base to keep it from any movement from stress given to the watch. The hands are distinguishable from each other with a mixture of pointer types 6 to be exact. The Arabic numerals and hours are alternating. The features of the GMT Twin timezone has two hands turning simultaneously, with the city of London in red, the GMT time, among the other cities and time zones appearing on the GMT ring. Moreover, this function offers the unusual possibility of setting one of the twin zones with the golden tipped hand on half time-zones in parts of the world such as India. What’s more, since the golden hand is “sliding”, it can also display the mean solar time of any location according to its longitude. The strap is of black large scale crocodile leather and is water resistant to 160 feet or 50 meters.
GRAND TOURBILLON PERPETUAL
Grand Tourbillon Perpetual, is another collection of Arnold and Sons. Regarded as a sophisticated complication, it shows a great deal of horological expertise in the timepiece that pursues to honor its great British founder. A tourbillon is a type of watch escapement that is designed to counter the effects of gravity and other forces that can affect the accuracy of a timepiece. This is accomplished by mounting the escapement in a rotating frame, so that the effect of gravity cancels out when the escapement is rotated 180°. The tourbillon is considered to be one of the most challenging of watch mechanisms to make and is valued for its engineering and design principles. The tourbillon is not new in the field of horology in fact, its original design dates back over two centuries ago but it is regarded as one of the most notable of all horological accomplishments.
The Grand Tourbillon Perpetual of Arnold and Sons is a distinct class on its own. Its 45mm diameter 18k rose gold casing with the cambered sapphire crystal and Transparent Sapphire crystal case back is well appointed. However looking at the watch one will notice the technology placed into its design. Though it looks like a straight forward watch, upon inspection, one will notice a myriad of buttons and crowns. There is a crown on the 3 o’clock to set the time and there are assorted calendar function push pieces at the 2, 3 and 10 o’clock setting and correctors at the 4, 8 and 9 o’clock positions. The perpetual calendar displays can be independently set by means of the two push pieces at the 2 and 10 o’clock and two recessed correctors at the 4 and the 8 o’clock or adjusted simultaneously by the corrector at the 9 o’clock position.
Beautifully and aesthetically placed through the bountiful opening in the lower half of the dial, the tourbillon sits. It shows its three arm propeller shaped hand which is complemented with an impressive array of additional functions. Its dial is black base with a guilloche decoration. It is a hand wound movement with its mechanism driving the moon phase and the leap year indicator visible only through the open back. Its dial are contrasting it has a black base with a segmented white semi circular dedicated arrow type pointer which sweeps over the pleasing to the eye retrograde date display appearing on the top of the dial. Above the tourbillon, on the grid patterned dial section shows the day of the week and the month in its own apertures.
The dial also features a Prepetual equation of time window which is to keep its owner in touch with a truly “universal” time beyond earthly time zones. As an option, for those who desire, zodiac calendar may appear in the same position. What sets this timepiece from the rest is its issue in two strict limited series of 10 in white gold and 10 in red gold.
These watches mentioned from Arnold and Sons are not made in high volume. The dealer network remains small. It is very sparing to find an Arnold and Sons on a person’s wrist. The watches mentioned will not shout status other than it is made with distinction, pride and an admiration for the individual.