12. Christiaan van der Klaauw Hypernova; literally an astronomical watch

CvdK is a Dutch brand that makes astronomical watches. This is one of their more ''usual'' watch, but still very limited. They make around 10-20 a year of this piece.

(credit: me)

I don't feel like explaining all the functions (day-night indicator, moonphase etc.), lets talk about design. One of the better thought-out dials I have seen in a long time. The pattern on the dial is resembling sunrays and the logo on the top is ''the sun''. The way they made the numerals is just a nice detail that shows how much thought goes into making this watch just right. On the lower half there aren't any numerals, that's because the wanted to make a distinguished line, just like the horizon! If you're going fully astronomical, you better go all in!

(Credit: me)

For all their designs they use their signature case design (in different sizes, this model is 44mm), which makes the importance of a well made dial (and said complications) that much more important. You don't want want the models to look too much a like, and if you look at their other models(http://www.klaauw.com/eng), they have done an amazing job with that. Normally I'd disagree with using the same case for all your models, but with them it just works. It highlights the design and features of the watch even that much more, because everybody is familiar with the case already.

(credit: me)

The signature ''sun with 12 claws'' (their logo) on the rotor are just nice, nothing more to say about that.On the more expensive pieces there are more details on the rotor. (Klaauw = Claw, in Dutch).

All in all, even tough I'm a little biased, because I am Dutch. I would've loved this piece no matter where it came from. I love that they have a specific theme in all their watches. You should really check them out.

Kind regards,
Ron