We love watches with moon phase complications here at T3 – so we’re pretty excited by news that Japanese firm Orient Star has just announced one of its own.
Called the M45 F7 Mechanical Moon Phase, the watch pairs the complication with a smart set of roman numerals, a dial showing the automatic movement’s power reserve, and a window offering a glimpse at the mechanicals within.
The watch features a 41mm stainless steel case, a black dial and a matching cordovan leather strap with push-button, tri-fold deployment. The dial puts its moon phase complication front-and-centre, neatly showing the position of the sun and moon in the night’s sky, set against a scattering of stars.
A date dial surrounds the circumference of the moon phase, while a window at the nine o’clock position gives a skeletal view of the movement within. The dial is protected by scratch-resistant sapphire crystal. A dial at the 12 o’clock position swings from 50 to zero, indicating how many hours of power the self-winding in-house movement has at any moment.
Orient Star says of the watch: “It features a unique flowing water motif on the dial…The moon phase display depicts the moon gently illuminating a flowing river while the diamond-shaped hands represent the glittering stars.”
Although fairly compact at 41mm in diameter, the case is 13.8mm thick, so might not be suitable for all wrists. It has a lug-to-lug measurement of 49mm and a lug width of 20mm, making it a fairly sizable timepiece when all dimensions and the protruding, unguarded crown are considered. That said, it packs a lot into its case.
Water resistance is 50 metres and the watch is available now, priced at £1,669.99.
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Alistair is a freelance automotive and technology journalist. He has bylines on esteemed sites such as the BBC, Forbes, TechRadar, and of best of all, T3, where he covers topics ranging from classic cars and men's lifestyle, to smart home technology, phones, electric cars, autonomy, Swiss watches, and much more besides. He is an experienced journalist, writing news, features, interviews and product reviews. If that didn't make him busy enough, he is also the co-host of the AutoChat podcast.
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