Tag Archives: mercury

Midnight Planétarium Poetic Complication

Midnight Planétarium Poetic Complication by Van Cleef & Arpels is a, quite frankly, obscenely expensive watch [HT Celestial Ladies]. But, it’s also a planetarium. Strangely, I didn’t find anything about this particular watch on their website, but I did find information about it elsewhere, which may be of interest.

Van Cleef & Arpels Midnight Planetarium Poetic Complication

“For the SIHH 2014, Van Cleef & Arpels once again celebrates celestial orbits by drawing inspiration from the historic tradition of planetariums with the Midnight Planétarium timepiece. This new Poetic Complication™ timepiece provides a miniature representation of the movement of six planets around the sun and their position at any given time. Painstaking attention has been given to selecting the stones, then sculpting the discs and spheres in order to give form to this animated tableau, with its combination of jewelry and watchmaking savoir-faire.” [via]

Van Cleef & Arpels Midnight Planetarium Poetic Complication detail

 

“Its piece de resistance was the Midnight Planetarium Poetic Complication that one can set in accordance to the solar system. It will document the tracks of the six planets while a gold shooting star on the face of the watch communicates the hour of the day.

More specifically, the Poetic Complication gives the movements of Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn around the dial of the watch according to their actual rotation around the earth (Jupiter will take 12 years to make it around the watch; Mercury 88 days; Earth 365 days, etc.) while the rotating bezel allows the wearer to select special days under which to align the earth and that special star as a sign of good luck.” — Hannah Elliot, Forbes [via]

 

“A highlight of the annual Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie (SIHH), held every January in Geneva, is seeing the various brands compete against each other in the very technical and artistic ends of the market with creations that have never been seen before—often with prices that are equally out of this world. One of our favorites from this category from 2014’s SIHH is the 44mm Midnight Planétarium from Van Cleef & Arpel’s Poetic Astronomy series. In addition to telling time by way of a shooting star that rotates along the outmost area of the face, the watch more prominently features an accurate rotation and representation of the Earth and the five other planets visible from here around the sun—Mercury in 88 days, Venus in 224, Earth in a year, Mars in 687 days, Jupiter in 12 years and Saturn in 29. It’s a very complex watch and a true display of supreme watchmaking. But as complicated as the piece is—with 396 parts to the movement—it’s also beautiful.”

“On top of the already extravagant design, one of the more standout features is the ability to set any of the 365 days in the year as a “lucky star,” an additional element in this magical cosmos. When your day arrives the lucky star is located just above the Earth on the dial.” — Evan Oresten, Cool Hunting [via]

 

Also, check out a video by the makers showing the watch and its features at “3D video of the Midnight Planétarium Poetic Complication™”

An Historical Summary of Angelic Hierarchies from Part VII: The “Seven” Thrones in In Operibus Sigillo Dei Aemeth by David Richard Jones.

“Consequently it is reasonable to believe that the movers of the heaven of the Moon belong to the order of Angels, and those of Mercury to that of the Archangels, and those of Venus to that of the Thrones; all of whom, receiving their nature from the love of the Holy Spirit, perform their operation, which is innate in them, namely, the movement of that heaven, filled with love, from which the form of the said heaven derives a potent ardor by which the souls here below are kindled to love, according to their disposition.” [via]

 


Dante Alighieri

 

Part III: The Circumference and the Hieroglyphic Monad in In Operibus Sigillo Dei Aemeth by David Richard Jones.

“This 4T is, by the system of the Circumference, but and indicator of another name. Counting 4 to the right we find 22h (note 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet), 22 to the right we find 11A, 11 to the right a5, 5 to the left o10, 10 the left t11 and 11 to the left h alone, ending the name and spelling ThAaoth. The reduplicated ‘a’ is eliminated according to the angels, leaving Thaoth.

This name is clearly a rendering of Thoth, Thauth, Theuth, etc., the Tahuti of the Egyptians, the Mercury of the Romans and Hermes of the Greeks, and identified in the Renaissance, after the discovery of the Corpus Hermetica with Hermes Trismegistus, the Thrice Great Hermes.” [via]