Time Is Money

I love watches, especially those with lots of dials and buttons. I own only one really nice watch, which tells the time, of course, and also has a stopwatch, moon-phase, and perpetual calendar that will work until 2499. (Of course, there is a little enameled metal insert that my great-great-great (etc) grandson will have to have placed by a jeweler in the year 2299 to make that last 200 years. I've promised this watch to my son as an heirloom when he reaches the age of 40, the age at which I bought it for myself. So, at that point, quite a few years from now, I'll be needing something new.

Pictured above is the Patek Philippe 5002-J Sky Moon Tourbillon, which should be adequate for the purpose. From the Patek website:

The Sky Moon Tourbillon Ref. 5002 is the most complicated wristwatch ever produced by Patek Philippe and also the workshop's first double-face wristwatch. Its movement consists of 686 parts, some of which are microscopically small.

Technical Specifications

Watch:

• Minute repeater with tourbillon escapement
• Chime with two “cathedral“ gongs activated by a slide piece in the case
• Front side:
• Perpetual calendar with retrograde date hand
• Hours and minutes of mean solar time
• Day, month, leap year by hands
• Moon age
• Crown at 4 o'clock: setting of the time and winding
• Opaline-white dial with embossed Calatrava cross motif, gold applied Roman numerals
• 9 hands
• Reverse side:
• Sidereal time, skychart, phase and orbit of the moon
• Crown at 8 o'clock (24-hour scale): correction of sky/moon indications
  Case is humidity and dust protected only (not water resistant)
• Case diameter: 42.8 mm
  

Caliber:

• Thickness: 12.61 mm
• Diameter: 38.00 mm
• Case diameter: 42.80 mm
• Number of jewels: 55
• Power reserve: min 38 max 48 hours
• Balance-wheel: Gyromax
• Geneva Seal Hallmark

Yes, it has a star chart on the back! But I guess you have to take it off to see that. Oh, well, nothing's perfect. And it's not even waterproof!

I should probably start saving my pennies now. The list price is approximately $2 Million, but savvy shopper that I am, I found it here for only $1.4 Million. I do hope they take American Express. Think of all the Frequent Flyer Miles I'll get!

Ah, it's nice to dream about such things once in a while. The kind of wealth it would take to own one of these things is absolutely mind-boggling. I would frankly never buy one, even if I were so blessed as to be able to afford one, but it sure would be nice to actually see one someday.