Watch carved from meteorite that hit Earth a million years ago | Hacker News Reader

Watch carved from meteorite that hit Earth a million years ago

cnn.com

41 pointscratermoon32 comments

Interestingly, the same meteorite “Muonionalusta”[1] has been used in other watches, e.g. Bulova Lunar Pilot Meteorite[2] or Akva Meteorite[3].

You too can buy a piece of that meteorite: https://www.meteoritejewelry.shop/collections/muonionalusta-...

[1]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muonionalusta

[2]: https://www.bulova.com/global/product/96A312.html?cgid=lunar...

[3]: https://henryarcher.com/en-eu/products/akva-atlas

Wow that's surprisingly inexpensive (to me at least who has never looked into the value of meteorites before), with some pieces even costing less than €100 EUR. Now I'm trying to come up with a reason why I shouldn't buy a piece.

Cons: you might be able to get it for even cheaper from a non-jeweler seller; also, meteorites like this need to be handled with care to avoid rust[1].

[1]: http://midnightsunmeteorites.com/en/muonionalusta-meteorite-...

I own a few bespoke meteorite artpieces and my biggest concern with something like this is the smell! Muonionalusta meteorite in my experience has this pungent, sulfur-like smell.

I see nothing about the movement and suspect it's an off-the-shelf quartz or ETA movement. If you're looking for a true "high-horology" watch with a meteorite dial, that also has stunning movement finishing, check out Grönefeld: https://www.gronefeld.com/news/from-oldenzaal-to-manhattan--...

What is movement finishing? - https://monochrome-watches.com/a-technical-perspective-all-y...

wait do you have one of the 12 Cellini Principias?

Sellita SW100

For $32k? Yikes! That's like a $150 mass-produced movement.

That grid-like crystalline pattern can't be produced in a lab. It's only present in metals that cool by 1 celsius every thousand years.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Widmanst%C3%A4tten_pattern

>IRON METEORITE WIDMANSTATTEN PATTERN PRODUCED IN THE LABORATORY Joseph I. Goldstein, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pa. Arthur S. Doan, Jr., Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt

>Pub date: 1970

https://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/pdf/1970Metic...5..201G

It probably could be produced in a lab if it had practical applications.

Uplifted mantle rocks will absolutely cool that slowly. What makes the iron crystals special is that the Earth's mantle and crust is swimming in oxygen so you don't see crystalline metals like that at all.

The formation of Ni-poor kamacite proceeds by diffusion of Ni in the solid alloy at temperatures between 450 and 700 °C, and can only take place during very slow cooling, about 100 to 10,000 °C/Myr, with total cooling times of 10 Myr or less.[13] This explains why this structure cannot be reproduced in the laboratory.

Hmm, [13] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S00092...

The wide range of cooling rates for IVA irons and their inverse correlation with bulk Ni concentration show that they crystallized and cooled not in a mantled core but in a large metallic body of radius 150±50 km with scarcely any silicate insulation. This body may have formed in a grazing protoplanetary impact.

Uhm,

There is a growing consensus that most iron meteorites come from bodies that accreted early – even before the parent bodies of the chondrites – and that 26Al, which has a half-life of 0.7 Myr, is the major heat source that melted them.

What? If I understand correctly, it was a large 150km metal blob full of radioactive alumin(iu)m that controlled the crystallization process over millions of years. Now that’s hardcore metal.

"The prototype watch is estimated to fetch between $8,000 and $16,000 when it appears at the Time for Art auction, organized by Phillips Watches, in New York on Saturday."

$8-16 thousand does not seem that high of a price for this... Especially when compared to the prices other high end watches fetch.

I’m skeptical that this is a high end watch. It’s collectable, sure, but they make no mention of the movement, and at that price I’m going to assume it’s nothing special, and that majority of the price has gone into the case and face.

Personally, I think it’s ugly, and reminiscent of 80’s black marble bathrooms.

I was going to say, where's the "buy it now" button?

It went for something like $35k at auction already some days ago

Meteorite dials are quite common. Meteorite cases are rarer because they are not overly practical. They rust, unless treated, and even then the coating isn't impervious. Still its nice to see a "rolex midas" style watch back on the market. The big watch people (omega, rolex, and the other brands owned by LVMH) are a bit conservative in styles, so its nice to see something different, if brutalist.

David Rutten made a brilliant 1920s style case https://www.watchprosite.com/horological-meandering/hands-on... They have gone through some changes and are now https://www.ukrony.com/

Might be a nitpick, but is everyone OK with just taking the photos with a mobile phone nowadays, even for such product photography? They look terrible when viewed on a computer screen.

I think watchpro is more of a fan forum, rather than a product selling site.

If you follow watch types on instagram the level of quality of photography is generally quite high.

Maybe most people browse these sites from mobile devices,and that's why the photos are taken this way?

> Toledano declined to disclose how much the fragment used for the B/1M cost, but he noted that raw meteorite can sell for more, per gram, than gold

Sure. Lunar, martian, rare types and some especially pretty pallasites.

Iron-nickel meteorites? I'd be shocked if they spent more than $10/gram, especially if they're declining to state the name of the meteorite.

The article says Muonionalusta. I’m no meteorologist though. Maybe that isnt the name of the meteorite.

I missed that. Muonionalusta is definitely a meteorite.

It's maybe $2-3/gram.

Sold for $35.5k last weekend: https://www.phillips.com/detail/toledano-chan/NY080424/103

“You often see meteorite dials; they are not uncommon on watches,” Toledano told CNN via Zoom from New York, where he is based. “But an entire meteorite case, dial, lugs — all that stuff — is very unusual.”

The design is oriented around the meterorite's iron: Widmanstätten patterns, also known as Thomson structures, are figures of long phases of nickel–iron, found in the octahedrite shapes of iron meteorite crystals and some pallasites.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Widmanst%C3%A4tten_pattern

My wedding band has a meteorite ring component. The owner of that watch is going to have a heavy lump that rusts on his wrist lol.

pretty cool though.

Niwa's Lunokhods each have a piece of the same meteorite in them (Muonionalusta).

If you ever wanted a lamp watch with a meteorite, here's your chance :)

https://niwa.watch/collections/niwa-lunokhod-watches

meteorite watches are nothing unusual, exotic or expensive. there are also watches made from former soviet soviet space program debris(rockets) so you have a piece of metal that went into space(orbit) and back. i do not recall the name of the brand but it was very inexpensive and quite cool.

Too bad it’s so unfortunate looking

We're doing trendy luxury goods now? Really?

...why did they have to make it so ugly?

to be different

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