Out of this world: The watches made from million-year-old space rock

Watchmakers realised a long time ago that they could embellish their creations with pretty much any part of Nature’s bounteous creation. Don’t believe me? I’ve seen watches crafted out of every workable metal and precious stone — and decorated with straw, wood, feathers, flower petals and even butterfly wings. However, what happens if Nature’s earthly resources are insufficient? To where do you turn next?

NASA estimates that around 44 tonnes of space rock hurtles in the direction of Earth every year, but the vast majority burns up in the atmosphere. If we see it falling — and burning — it’s a meteor; if it survives and crashes to the ground, it’s a meteorite. And nearly all of them are mercifully small. The handful of iron-based meteorites that are both large and interesting enough to do anything with fell to Earth thousands, if not millions, of years ago.

When you hear about a watch that incorporates fragments of meteorite — usually, but not always, in its dial — the maker will have sourced it from one of two space rocks: the 26 tonne Gibeon meteorite, discovered in Namibia in 1838, or the Muonionalusta, unearthed on the border of Sweden and Finland, in 1906.

Usable meteorites are understandably rare and there is a thriving and competitive industry dedicated to their trade, as well as hunting for new fragments. In July, a meteorite sold for $5 million (about £3.65 million) at auction in New York, but has since become the subject of some controversy — after the Nigerian government alleged that it had been illegally smuggled out of the country.

The saying ‘diamond in the rough’ applies. To make a meteorite look appealing and otherworldly, you have to slice it open and acid-treat it to reveal its signature jagged patterns (known as Widmanstatten patterns, after an Austrian Count who observed them in the 1800s). The angular criss-cross motif is a result of nickel-iron crystals forming in the rock.

Meteorites have been used in countless watch dials since their popularity first boomed about a decade ago (this was due to both changing tastes and advances in dial-making techniques), but many brands reserve their use for strictly limited and even off-catalogue products. See: Rolex, which stealthily added two new meteorite-dial Daytona models to its collection earlier this year. They retail — if you’re lucky enough to get the chance to buy one — at around £40,000, and change hands on the second-hand market for almost double that.

Some brands are little less secretive and both Omega and Zenith have released meteorite-dial versions of their flagship chronographs (the aptly-named Speedmaster Moonphase and the punchy Chromomaster Sport, respectively). There seems to be something that collectors find particularly appealing about the juxtaposition of colourful chronograph subdials and a silvery meteorite background.

However, as is so often the case, it is the smaller, independent brands that have really embraced the meteorite’s creative potential. Earlier this month, Toledano & Chan — founded between Hong Kong and New York City during the pandemic — announced a version of its cult favourite B/1.2 watch (above). As well as the dial, the case and buckle are both made from meteorite. The combination of Widmanstatten patterns with the watch’s already-angular design (it was inspired by New York’s Brutalist architecture) has a striking effect.

Toledano & Chanis is not the first to encase an entire watch in the material. In 2016, De Bethune did the same thing to its Dream Watch 5 model, using metallic meteorite in shades of blue and purple. It wouldn’t look out of place in a science fiction film. More recently, Massena Lab and Unimatic made an even more literal reference to outer space. The white ceramic version of the latter’s Modello Quattro featuring, of course, a meteorite dial, is the third in a trilogy of limited edition pieces, produced in official partnership with NASA.

Meteorite’s greatest strength — its singular appearance — is also its weakness because, rare exceptions such as De Bethune aside, there aren’t a myriad ways you can use it. Furthermore, the rock’s signature texture risks becoming a ubiquitous feature, rather than an unexpected treat, as more brands get their hands on it.

Bremont recently found a way to subvert expectations with its recently launched Altitude MB Meteor Stealth Grey. At first glance, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the dial is made from meteorite, but, during testing, the brand concluded that the space rock was too brittle to use (disclaimer: the MB series is designed to withstand ejection from a fighter jet). Instead, they decided to recreate the texture using good old earthly titanium embossed with a meteorite-like pattern. Ironically, brass is better equipped to take to the skies than the very material that fell out of it.