The Watch: Vicenterra is a one-man vision of Swiss independent watchmaking. Vincent Plomb spent a career in micro-mechanics before founding the brand in 2005, and his signature complication is unlike anything else near this price: a hand-painted, three-dimensional rotating globe, built ultra-light in titanium, turning once every 24 hours. Watches with real spinning globes are genuinely rare, and nearly all of them cost five or six figures. Named after the Danish astronomer, the Tycho Brahe puts one on the wrist for a fraction of that.
The globe does actual work. It shows where on Earth the sun is at its zenith, while two small sapphire markers indicate where it's currently 6 in the morning and 6 in the evening. A pusher at 4 o'clock sets the globe after you've set the hands to noon. The off-center blue dial handles the time, bordered by a rhodium crescent satin-brushed at 45 degrees, with a date in a polished silver bowl. Flip the watch over and the caseback has two portholes, one showing the movement with Vicenterra's distinctive winding rotor, the other showing the far side of the Earth.
The case is 42.8mm in hand-polished Grade 5 titanium with concave flanks and the crown at 2. Inside is a Swiss ETA 2892 base carrying Vicenterra's own complications module, with 95% of the watch's components made in the Swiss Jura.
