6 Best Moonphase watches under £10,000

The Master Collection is well known for its rounded forms and refined details that give each watch such quality.

Jaeger-LaCoultre is a Swiss company, well-known for the beautiful clocks and watches that it manufactures. It was founded in Le Sentier, Switzerland in 1833 by Antoine LeCoultre. Amongst the company’s achievements was its record for manufacturing the world’s smallest movement. The Master Ultra-Thin Moon is the company’s latest accolade.

With its ultra-thin 39 mm stainless steel case and black sunray brushed dial, this watch has a refined style with well-defined silver five-minute intervals and smaller one-minute ones and elegant hour, minute and second hands. The classic moonphase aperture with its golden moon and large stars, against a midnight blue sky, is encircled by the days of the month. This watch has an automatic movement and is beautifully complemented by a black alligator strap.

The Swiss watchmakers International Watch Company Schaffhausen (IWC Schaffhausen) can be found in the town of the same name. The company was begun in 1868 by American watchmaker Florentine Aristo Jones and soon gained a reputation for its luxury watches. Although the company’s Portugieser  collection has become one of their most iconic models, the Portofino collection possesses all the great qualities of the Portugieser.

In 1984, IWC presented a new collection of watches named ‘Portofino’ after the beautiful Italian coastal village that became a luxury holiday destination for the rich and famous. The Portofino Automatic Moonphase is one of the watches in this prestigious collection and is important as it is the first time that a moonphase watch with a dial measuring 40.00mm, has been made by the company.

This traditionally styled timepiece is very elegant with a stainless-steel case. The dial is silver plated with gold hands, with Roman numerals at the six and 12 o’clock positions. The five-minute intervals are clearly marked with smaller one-minute intervals around the edge. The face is protected by convex sapphire glass that is anti-reflective. The moonphase aperture is at the 12 o’clock position and is classically designed with a golden moon with a star-spangled dark blue sky behind. This watch is automatic self-winding and is presented on an attractive hand-painted brown alligator strap.

If you are looking for a wow factor that will standout in an social occassion, then the Glashutte Panomatic lunar watch is a good choice. This innovatively styled watch that is eye-catching both because of the unnique display of the watch, and the variety of vibrant colour variations for the watch.

Glashütte is a German watchmaker, who for the last 175 years, has combined art with the highest standards of workmanship – with breathtaking results.

Their Panomatic Lunar Watch has a satin-brushed stainless-steel case with a protective sapphire crystal glass. The 40 mm dial is in green and black with a dégradé effect with appliqués. There are two dials that are off-centre to the left; the larger one at the top, is for the hours and minutes and the smaller lower one, is for seconds.

On the right-hand side of the dial at the 2 o’clock position is the moonphase aperture depicting a silver moon and stars against a white background. Below this, there is a small rectangular window with black numerals on a white background, that displays the date. All the markings on the dials and the hands are silver in colour.

The watch has an automatic movement and is on an alligator nubuck strap that is mid-brown in colour.

Ideal for those who like plenty of functions on their watch and can appreciate the clever blend of classic elements with contemporary styling, this watch has been an excellent addition to the prestigious Sirius collection from the relatively new luxury watchmaker, Chronoswiss.

Founded in 1983 by the German master watchmaker, Gerd- Rüdiger Lang, Chronoswiss has already gained a reputation for placing the emphasis on fine detail. The result is this refined watch that has been cleverly designed to reveal a moonphase complication in a tricomplax chronograph wristwatch.

The Sirius Moonphase watch has a stainless-steel case of 41mm in diameter. Due to the complication of not just a chronograph mechanism but also a moonphase, makes the watch standout a little taller on the wrist at 15mm.

Although the sizing of the watch has a more bulky feel to it, the design has been made to compliment this. By ehnacing the natural size of the crown of the watch, paired with the more complex watch face.

The eye-catching dial has blue guilloche decoration and around the edge is an analogue date indicator, with a small red marker. There are large clear white numbers sitting between each subdial with 4 delicately designed hour, minute, second and date hands.

The moonphase aperture is positioned at the 3 o’clock position, decorated with a contemporary style depiction of the moon. It is shown using classic colours of a golden moon with a smiling ‘man in the moon’ against a dark blue background.

There are three other dials on the dial: a chronograph 30-minute counter at 12 o’clock, with running seconds at 9 o’clock and a 12-hour chronograph at the 6 o’clock position.

Yes this watch may not be practical or well fitted for every occasion, but the pure internal complexity of the movement that the watch possesses, makes the watch an amazing feat in watch craftsmanship.

The Sirius Moonphase goes far beyond the impression of style and focuses on mechanical capability.