Milky Way

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Milky Way - Emile Chouriet
Emile Chouriet’s Milky Way watch takes us on an interstellar journey.

I’ve always had a soft spot for moon phase watches. Despite its relative lack of practicality, this classic complication is still highly prized by watchmakers and customers of both sexes. It lends watches an aesthetic aspect, as well as that poetic touch that everyone needs in their lives.

I discovered Emile Chouriet’s Voie Lactée on a colleague’s Instagram account, and immediately fell in love with it. The dial features a sapphire crystal disc with metallic printed stars, representing the starry sky, which conveys a mother-of-pearl moon disc around the dial. The lunar cycle rotates the disc by 12° every 24 hours, hiding the moon disc back under the Emile Chouriet logo every 29.5 days. The logo and hour markers are displayed on a second sapphire glass, which glides over the moon disc like an invisible veil. The two superimposed discs give the dial great visual depth. The effect is enhanced by the stars of different sizes scattered across the midnight blue dial.

Voie Lactée

People have always been fascinated by the mysteries of the universe, and I am no exception. Reading the time off the Voie Lactée gives a genuine impression of gazing into the infinite depths of the cosmos. The minimalist display, with its slim hands and Roman numerals at 12, 3, 6 and 9 o’clock, is designed to focus all the attention on the starry sky and its mother-of-pearl moon. Its understated styling will appeal to men and women who appreciate timeless elegance. I generally like watches with a diameter of 38 to 42 mm, sizes often considered on the large side for a woman. At 42.2 mm, with its wing-shaped lugs specially redesigned for this model (a distinctive feature of Emile Chouriet watches) the Voie Lactée drapes itself perfectly around my wrist, and feels comfortable to wear. My only slight quibble is with the strap, which is a little too big (women’s versions can be ordered specially). I would also have preferred a midnight blue strap, which would provide a younger and more contemporary alternative to the black strap that comes with the watch.

Voie Lactée

In recent years Jean Depéry, Emile Chouriet’s founder, has developed an in-house movement, opening up new horizons for the company, but unfortunately this is not the motor that has been chosen to drive the Voie Lactée. The automatic EC7308 movement is, however, visible through the sapphire caseback.

The other model in the Voie Lactée collection, the Zodiac, displays the twelve signs of the zodiac, as its name would suggest.

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