Hands-On The Laurent Ferrier Classic Moon

For a few years, I've been hoping for Patek Philippe to update ref. 5396 back to something closer to the ref. 2497 perpetual calendar design (or even ref. 3448). The center-second design of the 5396, with the date aperture at 6 o'clock, harms what otherwise could be a classic design. Luckily, Laurent Ferrier gets a lot closer in many ways with the Classic Moon. 

The Classic Moon was one of the more subtly charming watches of Watches & Wonders. Offered in stainless steel or 18k rose gold cases measuring 40mm by 12.9mm thick, the watch wears smaller on the wrist due to the longer lug length that you would find on something made by Antoine Gerlach for Patek, but without the distinctive angular shape, let alone a steeper downturn of a Vichet 2499 lug. Instead, the lugs have a very polished and smooth line, mimicking the rest of the case shape. I'll come back to that design shortly. In steel, the watch is offered with an opaline grey-blue dial and white-painted hands, while the rose gold case is paired with a vertically brushed silver dial.

The dial layout is simpler than the annual calendar 5396, but the calendar is still approached differently than the aforementioned vintage perpetual calendars from Patek. The watch has apertures for the day of the week and month at the top of the dial and a luminous moonphase at 6 o'clock, with a double display for the northern and southern hemispheres. In the middle of that moonphase is a hand that tracks a slightly larger subsidiary second subdial. The watch also features a date indicator track around the case edge, with a central pointer. All of this is housed under a domed sapphire without AR coating, an intentional decision to let the reflections play off the dial.

This is the brand's first-ever moonphase complication, with a subdial made of Aventurine glass from Murano artisans, engraved in moon and star motifs with hand-applied white paint for the details. That engraving is hand-filled with Super-LumiNova, which is again engraved for the craters on the moon. That subdial is covered with a translucent disc in petrol blue enamel, which feels like a modern touch. The brushed vertical dial on the silver dial is also very contemporary. That's core to what Laurent Ferrier has done here: take something very traditional and nostalgic, and move it into present day.

The bevelled windows and transfer-printed Roman numerals, chemin de fer minute track in petrol blue color, and the Assegai-shaped Ruthenium or painted white hands bring the watch back into the line of classic watches. While the Roman numerals remind me more of classic grandfather clocks than what I would have chosen if I was designing the watch, I think it's those very things that captured people's nostalgia and resulted in a lot of messages to my Instagram after I posted a phone photo of the watch.

The new release is powered by the LF126.02 manually wound caliber, seen through a sapphire caseback. This updated movement is based on the previous LF126.01 annual calendar, now with an 80-hour power reserve. Out of 266 components, 30 have been added, and 20 have been revised and optimized. The movement features a power reserve indicator and the long blade ratchet pawl found in Laurent Ferrier's manual movements. As an annual calendar, it adjusts for 30 and 31-day months, while it needs adjustment in February.

The LF126.02 has a polished bassiné finish, plates with Rhodium-treated Côtes de Genève decoration, and a circular-grained main plate is circular graining. If you like to count the interior angles of your movements, you might be slightly disappointed as Laurent Ferrier's larger, fuller plates mean that while you get hand-beveled and polished edges and interior angles, there are fewer of them. Each recessed screw head in the movement is finished in this style, but that's often not as captivating as a more open movement design. Yet it's a part of Laurent Ferrier's DNA that has grown on me.

There's a push and pull with my feelings toward the Classic Moon. Part of that lies in the "Classic" case shape. Can you really love something if you want to change it slightly? An inherent part of Laurent Ferrier's "Classic" design is the gentle, sloping shape, from the bezel to the larger ball-shaped crown (which sets the date and time of the annual calendar, while an adjuster sets the moonphase). The shape of 19th-century pocket watches of similar design inspires this "pebble" case. 

It really is an elegant, classic shape with a larger bezel that reminds me of the bezel-to-dial ratio of the Patek ref. 3448. But one of the successes of the 3448 is the angular portions of the case. The lines are clean, but strong. Here, it almost looks like a watch that has been polished over decades of wear. To some, that may be charming, but for me, I still might wish for something stronger.

That's not enough to deter me or stop me from recommending the watch, as it really did look and feel wonderful on the wrist. The grey-blue opaline dial is far and away my favorite – maybe I haven't gotten to the "precious metal stage of my life" as Ben likes to call it. The blue dial is far bolder and lends some versatility to the watch, especially with a white metal that can be dressed up and down.

The finish on the dial, while still in that modern vein with the light graining, seems a bit more classic than the brushed silver, though the white text seems a bit less bold and defined on the surface. But the combination of white and power-blue test is fun and casual. The use of white indicators in the aperture makes sense, in this instance, as it increases legibility.

Choosing the blue dial is probably the decision you make when looking for one watch to do many things – the place I'd find myself now if picking between the two. I'd guess most buyers will gravitate toward the rose-gold case because it will fill a specialized space in their collection. At CHF 70,000 in steel and CHF 80,000 in rose gold, the watch is an expensive proposition. Compared to the $63,510 price tag (just shy of CHF 58,000) on the Patek ref. 5396G, you're paying a CHF 22,000 premium to get a gold-cased annual calendar from an independent watchmaker. But the charm of the design will likely be enough to woo over collectors. 

Laurent Ferrier Classic Moon, ref. LCF039.R5.G3N or LCF039.AC.C1WC, 4omm diameter by 12.9mm thick stainless steel or 18k rose gold case, with 30m water resistance. Grey-blue opaline or vertical satin-finished silver, Assegai-shaped, painted white or treated with Ruthenium. Hours, minutes, subsidiary seconds, annual calendar with moonphase, and dial-edge date track. Manual-winding Calibre LF126.02 movement, set by the crown (except moonphase set by two adjusters) running at 3Hz with 80 hours of power reserve. Dark grey Nubuck or Brown Calf, hand-sewn, tone-on-tone Alcantara lining with pin-buckle to match the case. Price: CHF 70,000 (steel) and CHF 80,000 (rose gold).