ARNOLD & SON – Luna Magna Platinum Dragon and Verdite

Key Highlights

• Platinum (Pt 950) case, 44 mm, with an 18-carat white gold hand-engraved dragon resting on a verdite dial
• Three-dimensional 12 mm moon sphere composed of verdite and white gold; moon-phase accuracy for 122 years without correction
• White opal hours-and-minutes sub-dial with Super-LumiNova for night legibility
• In-house A&S1021 manual winding calibre, 90-hour power reserve, 3 Hz frequency
• Secondary moon-age display on the case back for precise moon-phase setting
• Imperial green alligator leather strap; platinum and titanium folding clasp
• Strictly limited to eight pieces; Swiss retail price CHF 95,700 incl. VAT

A Legend Cast in Noble Materials

Arnold & Son‘s Luna Magna collection has always been defined by its oversized, astronomically accurate moon sphere. With the Platinum Dragon Verdite, the Maison adds a second register of ambition: sculptural artistry drawn from Asian imperial tradition. The result is one of the most compositionally complex dials the brand has produced to date, presented at Watches and Wonders among the season’s most anticipated limited editions.

The dragon depicted here belongs to the Asian tradition: wingless, five-clawed, its imperial lineage encoded in every talon. Sculpted from a solid block of 18-carat white gold and then hand-engraved with exceptional precision, it coils across the dial’s surface, scales raised in relief, gaze fixed on the moon sphere. Its movement — or apparent movement — follows a formal logic: the creature encircles the white opal sub-dial before extending towards the three-dimensional moon, the Pearl of Wisdom it seeks to reclaim.

The Verdite Dial

Verdite is an ornamental stone of pronounced rarity, valued for the depth and unpredictability of its veining. Arnold & Son sourced only the finest available quality for this reference, using it in two distinct applications: the main dial plate on which the dragon rests, and one half of the 12 mm moon sphere itself. No two pieces will read identically; the stone ensures that each of the eight examples is, in the strictest sense, singular.

The White Opal Sub-Dial

The hours-and-minutes sub-dial in white opal provides both contrast and function within a composition that could easily have prioritised spectacle over readability. Charged with Super-LumiNova, it absorbs ambient light and emits a soft glow after dark — a deliberate echo of moonlight, and a practical asset for a complication that invites nocturnal observation.

Astronomical Precision at Its Core

The A&S1021 calibre is developed, machined, assembled and regulated entirely in-house by Arnold & Son. At its centre sits the mechanism that drives the moon sphere: a lunar display of such accuracy that, kept fully wound, it would require no correction for 122 years. This figure is not rhetorical — it reflects the calibre’s ability to track a complete lunar cycle of 29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes and 2.8 seconds with near-perfect fidelity. Among houses specialising in gem-set and sculptural dials, few pair decorative ambition with this level of horological rigour.

The A&S1021 Movement

The calibre measures 37.60 mm in diameter and 12 mm in height including the moon sphere, running at 3 Hz with 35 jewels and a 90-hour power reserve on manual winding. The finishing is consistent with Arnold & Son’s established vocabulary: circular-grained main plate, radiating Côtes de Genève on the bridges, blued and chamfered screws with polished heads. On the case back, a secondary moon-age display with graduated markings allows the complication to be set with precision — an adjustment accessible directly via the crown.

Case, Strap and Collector Context

The 44 mm case in platinum Pt 950 houses the movement behind a box sapphire crystal with anti-reflective coating on both sides. At 15.90 mm thickness — inevitable given the moon sphere’s protrusion — the watch wears with considered weight. The imperial green alligator leather strap with black lining is the appropriate counterpart to the verdite’s chromatic range; the folding clasp combines a platinum cover and buckle frame with titanium blades.

Eight pieces. Reference 1LMAX.Z05A.C1437C. At CHF 95,700 including Swiss VAT, this is a collector’s acquisition in every sense — a timepiece whose rarity is defined not only by edition size but by the irreproducibility of its stone, the hours of hand-engraving each dragon demands, and a moon-phase mechanism that few calibres in production can match for precision.

For more on horology that matters in the Gulf, sign up for our weekly editorial briefing.