Louis Moinet's Moon Meteor packs three Martian and lunar fragments into a 12-piece watch

Louis Moinet has unveiled the Moon Meteor, a limited edition of just 12 watches whose dial is built from genuine meteorite fragments rather than paint or lacquer alone. The piece was shown at Geneva Watch Days 2026. It combines hand-painted nebulae, an astronomical moonphase display and a domed sapphire crystal over a titanium case.

The case measures 40.7mm across and 17.92mm thick, cut from Grade 5 titanium and finished in a mix of polished and satin surfaces. Despite its size, the watch weighs only 18 grams. Openworked lugs integrate a Louisiana alligator strap closed with a folding clasp, and water resistance is rated to 30 meters, modest by design for a piece built for artistry rather than diving.

At the center is a slightly domed lunar disc with an engraved, hand-painted surface that glows under ultraviolet light. Two lunar meteorite fragments mark the full and new moon phases. Gadamis 005 marks the full moon, prized for its marbled gray-and-white texture and its link to the Apollo 16 landing region.

Dhofar 457 marks the new moon, its surface a deep black that formed during the violent process of crater creation on the lunar surface. A hand-painted astronaut stands above the disc as a fixed reference point through the cycle, a detail Louis Moinet describes as tracking the moon's progress night to night.

Three further meteorite fragments are within the dial itself, chosen for rarity rather than uniformity of appearance. At 8 o'clock is a fragment of NWA 13925, a Martian meteorite the brand calls rare and highly valuable. At 2 o'clock is a piece of the Jbilet Winselwan meteorite, and at 4 o'clock an uncommon Sahara 97093 EH3 enstatite specimen, each with a distinct color and composition.

How the dial was painted

The celestial background around the meteorite fragments is a multilayered miniature painting rather than a single printed surface. An artist works under a binocular microscope, applying successive layers of lacquer, varnish and a viscous glow-in-the-dark paint by hand to build up the nebula effect across the dial.

The work is checked in both light and darkness as it progresses. In daylight, the dial shows vivid nebula colors crossed by three painted meteors; in the dark, the same surface reveals a hidden luminescence that changes the watch's character between day and night wear.

The outer flange adds a fifth meteorite to the piece: it is cut from the ancient Muonionalusta meteorite and displays visible Widmanstatten patterns, the crystalline structures that form only in meteorites which cooled over millions of years in space. The hour markers and graduations are laser-engraved for legibility against the busy dial.

The movement behind the moonphase

Power comes from the automatic Louis Moinet caliber LM113, developed with movement partner Concepto. A gear train built around a 135-tooth wheel drives the central astronomical moon display, which the brand says deviates by only one day every 122 years, a level of accuracy well beyond a standard moonphase mechanism.

The 29-jewel LM113 runs at 28,800 vibrations per hour and offers a 48-hour power reserve, displaying hours, minutes and the lunar cycle. Louis Moinet will produce just 12 examples of the Moon Meteor, priced at CHF 48,000 each, positioning it toward the artistic and technical end of the brand's output rather than its everyday pieces.

We previously covered the Moon Meteor's launch and its use of three genuine meteorites, and this release adds detail on the case construction, the movement's accuracy claim and the specific pricing that were not yet confirmed at that point. That earlier piece is where we first laid out the watch's basic premise before these figures were public.

Louis Moinet has built its reputation on pairing rare materials, from meteorites to fossils and shipwreck relics, with astronomical complications across its wider collection, a house style distinct from the classical 1816 series we reviewed and enjoyed for its restraint. The Moon Meteor is a return to that more theatrical register.

That reputation sits alongside a broader run of recent limited editions across the category we track in our coverage of watches jewelry, from Jaeger-LeCoultre's high-horology pieces to Hublot's collaborations with Jeff Koons. The Moon Meteor's five-meteorite dial and 12-piece run place it among the smallest and most material-driven of that group.

Louis Moinet has not indicated whether further examples or variants of the Moon Meteor are planned once the 12-piece run sells through. With meteorite fragments as finite and singular as the ones used here, any expansion would depend on sourcing comparable specimens rather than simply repeating the design.