Two news items from watch maker ochs und junior – a new moonphase look and a sweeping rename of the models. Since it’s brief, we will deal with the rename first. Previously, their watches had evocative names like ‘Selene‘ for moon phase, which probably caused confusion. The line is now renamed according to what they’re calling ‘time horizons.’

Very prosaic and practical. Should make it easier to shop their collection.

The other news is the new dial on the moon phase, seen above. The new dial is brass, patinated using a sculpture restoration technique that turns it dark grey. Once that’s done, they mill out the indices, moon and date dot to reveal the brass beneath.

The hands are also brass, satinized instead of patina finsihed, with a hand-painted second hand. Gotta love that attention to detail.

And of course, part of the appeal of the moon phase is the mechanism. Only five parts, and the most accurate in a watch. You can get the full details in my review here. The dial itself is an integral part of the mechanism, not just a display canvas:

As a watch geek, that makes my heart flutter.

By way of comparison, here’s the underside of the annual calendar dial:

That’s a bit of a teaser, as we hope to have a full review of the new annual calendar as soon as they’re available. Should be a treat.

In terms of the new names, all ochs und junior pieces are in the “time horizons” collection and have new simple names such as “date, moonphase, annual calendar,” etc… And yes, they are all lower-cased. Press releases (PDF) are here (moon phase) and here (rename). ochsundjunior.ch