METEORITE

ANTOINE PREZIUSO AND HIS TIMELESS LOVE STORY WITH METEORITES

Over the past two decades, Antoine Preziuso has played a pioneering role in incorporating meteorites into splendid high-end watches, thereby lending a uniquely universal dimension to the relationship between space and time, which he has constantly explored in parallel through spinning Tourbillons and innovative displays. He has also driven the concept to unprecedented heights by extending the use beyond the dial to the case, buckle, crown and hands.

Watches as unique as the people who wear them

Just like human beings, the very nature of meteorites means that no two could ever be identical, and their use in watches guarantees a unique look and feel for each timepiece. Radiating a rugged sensuality tinged with a slightly wild aura of freedom, the Antoine Preziuso watches bring within reach precious fragments of eternity carrying whispers of the vast, unfathomable universe. And if their arrival on earth is anything to go by, these models are liable to have an impressive impact on their owners.

In addition to examining them to uncover important data relating to the origins and history of the solar system, scientists duly authenticate the meteorites thus found, thereby de facto endowing them with a trade value, mostly based on their rarity.

The making of a meteorite case

Once a meteorite hunter has provided a sufficiently large meteorite block, there are several stages involved in transforming this “heavenly” material into a stunning watch case:

Every meteorite has its own inimitable composition and character: here’s a close-up look at the two “favourites” used by Antoine Preziuso.

Location: Great Namaqualand, Namibia, Africa. Latitude 25 degrees 20 minutes South, Longitude 18 degrees East. 

Structural Class: Fine octahedrite, Of class, Widmanstatten bandwidth 0.3 ±0.5 mm.

Time of Fall/Discovery: Believed to have fallen in prehistoric times. The Gibeon Meteorite was first reported by Capt. J.E. Alexander in 1838.

Chemical composition:  mostly ferrous iron (around 90%), along small quantities of cobalt,   phosphorous and Germanium.

Only a very few individual pieces of Munionalusta have been found over the past 100 years in the region called with the same name in Lapland in the North of Sweden, 140 km north of the Arctic Circle. It is both rare and hard to locate because it is scattered among a number of glacier sediments.

Location: Muonionalusta, Sweden, Europe.  Latitude 67degrees 54 minutes North, Longitude 23 degrees 34 East

Structural Class: Fine  IV A class octahedrite, Widmanstatten bandwidth: 0.3 mm

Time of fall/discovery:  Unknown fall, estimated at more than 800,000 years ago,

  first found by children in 1906

Chemical composition:  Muonionalusta meteorite is mainly composed of ferrous iron.