Hi all,
About to buy a BP perpetual calendar (single moon version). I don't have a moon phase watch before and would like to know how it works.
I understand that there are 4 phases and how many days per phase? How do i check if the moon phases are correct? What website can i use to check against the watch moon phase display?
Thanks.
Pleekh - great choice of watch there. IWC's Perpetual Calendars are mechanically pre-programmed and all calendar displays are synchronized. This means that ever night at midnight, when the calendar advance occurs - the watch will advance the day, date, Moonphase, month (if necessary) year (if necessary), decade (if necessary) ,and century (if necessary).
As you know, the moon phase is a synodic month - which does not evenly align with 28, 29, 30, or 31 days. A full lunar cycle is approximately 30.44 days - but we don't even need to care about this.
IWC will set your watch at the factory, to a given date of the most recent FULL moon, such as "WED, 23 MARCH 2016". You will never need to independently need to reset the moon phase on the watch for 577 years.
The gear ratio of the BP Perpetual is big enough to have a massive gear geometry (same as Portuguese) to accommodate an unrivaled lunar accuracy.
More info on this can be found at
Patek has a very helpful page for you to check your moon phase accuracy.
Check it out and compare it to this April 15th 2016 moon phase,
www.patek.com/en/collection/movements-complications/moonphase-indicator
That's quite a gorgeous watch Fleekk, I love it!
A real stunner and wish to have!