Seconde Morte

Martin Braun Selene

The Martin Braun Selene is a moon phase complication, with a twist. The dial is dominated by a fantastically realistic moon phase disc, so the owner of this beautiful watch will feel they have the moon on their wrist.

"What is it you want, Mary? What do you want? You want the moon? Just say the word and I'll throw a lasso around it and pull it down. Hey. That's a pretty good idea. I'll give you the moon, Mary...but...A Martin Braun Selene would be easier. Whaddya say, Mary...Mary?"

The mechanism behind the lovely dial of this, the seventh Martin Braun complication, is so accurate, that it will not need correction for 122.5 years. After which, the moon phase will only be off by one day.

Setting the Selene is accomplished by a corrector button located in the case center at the 8 o'clock position. Because the setting is so precise, the phase can be set to the minute, rather than the usual hour, or day.

The date is shown via a pointer and numbers 1-31 located around the outer dial. The hour ans minute hands are skeletonized, so as to avoid obstructing the moon phase. Normally I don't like open work hands, but on this dial it works perfectly and gives prominence to the complication, than the time.

The moon is presented through a disk with two dark circles. The disk revolves underneath this transparent moon and eclipse it. Because of this over lapping, the shadow of the moon is clearly seen, even during a new moon. A far cry from the usual two painted moons on a circular disk that we've seen for years.

There are three different dials available for the Selene:

The Selene B has a black painted dial. The hands are made up of backwards sun rays from Martin Braun’s logo. Luminous markers offset the dark dial and also underscore the moon theme.

The Selene S is based on the dial of Martin Braun’s first complication, the EOS. The sun ray guilloché pattern radiates from a point behind the moon at 9 o’clock rather than 6 o’clock as it would on the EOS.

And lastly, but certainly not least, a meteorite dial. This particular material is blessed with the so-called Widmanstätten structure, named for Alois von Beckh-Widmanstätten (1754-1849). Such meteorites are normally found in Africa, especially in the area of Namibia.

For more pics and further information, please see Mike Disher's post at Timezone:

http://forums.timezone.com/index.php?t=tree&goto=2719307&rid=0