This limited edition of only twenty watches, distributed only in Japan, is a masterpiece of watchmaking that literally transcends time and space. The extraordinary JAPAN ROCKET harbours three distinct and genuine cosmic elements: a fragment of the Japanese H-IIB rocket, an extremely rare lunar meteorite, and a Gibeon meteorite. Together, they are witnesses to the immensity of the universe and human being’s ceaseless quest to explore it. Each aspect of this watch, from mechanism to contemporary design, evokes both the loftiness of space exploration and mastery of a traditional craft.
Japanese rocket H-IIB fragment
To space and back
On 21 July 2012, the Japanese rocket H-IIB soared across the Pacific sky on its way into orbit. Its mission that day was to carry the H-Transfer Vehicle (HTV), known as Kounotori, to the International Space Station (ISS). It had some essentials on board for the astronauts, replacement parts for the ISS, and various experimentation devices and research apparatus. Today, a real fragment from the payload fairing of that H-IIB rocket, has become immortalised onboard the very special JAPAN ROCKET limited edition. This bit of space history has been ingeniously positioned behind a lunar meteorite, and both elements were carefully enclosed inside an aluminium capsule.
The lunar meteorite
A journey through space
The limited-edition watch offers an exclusive, genuine fragment of the moon, an extremely rare and precious material, since only 300 such meteorites have ever been recorded world-wide. They travelled more than 400,000 kilometres before being captured by Earth’s gravity and landing in the Dhofar Desert in the Sultanate of Oman. Here, a piece of this rare material has been transformed into a veritable work of art. Carefully sculpted and dyed red, it evokes the characteristic visual elements of the Japanese rocket H-IIB.
The Gibeon meteorite
Symbol of the universe
The Gibeon meteorite fell in Namibia and was named after the nearest town. It is famous for its distinctive “Widmanstätten pattern”, which is typical for extraterrestrial ferrous rocks. The Gibeon meteorite has been dyed midnight blue by means of an innovative process demanding great expertise and skill, and then placed at the centre of the dial.
