But for the very particular moonphase fanatic, this is not enough. For most people, that is a sufficient level of accuracy. Those errors amount to roughly one day every 31.5 months or so. Over time, a moonphase complication operating on the assumption that the lunar cycle is a “neat” 29.5 days will accumulate errors. In reality, the lunar cycle lasts 29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes, and 3 seconds. Elementary moonphase complications treat the lunar cycle as if it were precisely 29.5 days. There are many different types of moonphase complications and their accuracy varies.
However, there was a long road ahead and it would take many centuries for the sufficient miniaturization of this remarkable technology. Furthermore, it was able to track the forerunning four-year cycle that we would now call an Olympiad.Īnd so for more than 2,000 years, humanity has not only been obsessed with the movement of the heavenly bodies above us but also been able to track them using mechanical devices. Unbelievably, considering its age, the Antikythera mechanism could predict astronomical positions that would not occur for decades. Its creation’s exact date has yet to be agreed upon, but all estimates place it at over 2,000 years old (with most reckoning it was built sometime between 205 BC and 87 BC). The Antikythera mechanism was recovered from a shipwreck off the coast of the Greek Island that gave the creation its name. The earliest known artifact capable of documenting the celestial dance playing out above our heads is the Antikythera mechanism. The idea of tracking the moon’s journey across the sky (and its ever-changing face) has been around for a long – a very long – time. It is little wonder that a complication dedicated to tracking the moon’s transit became the life’s work of many legendary horologists. And what better vista to muse over than the heavens? The sky above us has inspired our species since the first human gazed upon it and wondered where they fit within the great circle of life. Those that find these mechanical masterpieces over which we fawn so compelling, often have a deep interest in existential musings. Watchmaking isn’t just about the tracking of time, but also the appreciation of it.
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