Passions Watch Exchange

About This Watch

Pre-owned. Comes with a UN box (PU in poor condition, missing outer box and inner platform), manual, book and dated paper.

We're delighted to offer you this very rare and highly collectible Ulysse Nardin Planetarium Copernicus housed in an 18ct yellow gold case. This is one of the three watches that made up the Trilogy of Time and any discerning watch connoisseur should have a set in their collection. It is one of the most important set of wrist watches dedicated to astronomy with working complications and nearly all of us were taught to look into the night sky at some point of our lives. The celestial world is a fascinating and mystical place.

Released in 1988, this watch shows the positions of the five main planets in relation to the Sun and Earth. This watch was named after the Rennaisance polymath Nicolaus Copernicus because he formulated a model of the universe that placed the Sun in the middle instead of Earth.

The three watches were released in different years to honour the greatest astronomers of mankind starting with the Astrolabium Galileo Galilei in 1985 developed by Dr Ludwig Oechslin. Then our watch here and finally in 1992, the Tellurium Jahannes Kepler.

The Blue dial has a fixed center representing the sun while the rotating concentric rings represent Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus and Mercury with a fixed ring for the Earth and Moon. The extrenal gold ring shows the months of the year and signs of the Zodiac. The crystal is printed on the reverse with gold demarcations indicating positions of the planets in relation to the Earth and the Zodiac.

In our 30+ years in this business, we have only sold two Planetariums and one Astrolabium. We never acquired the Tellurium.

We sold this exact watch some 15 years ago but the blue dial has discoloured over the years to what we see now. Some would call this tropicalised but it is actually a common problem with blue dials as decay in the pigment tend to breakdown over time and we've seen it happen to many dials from the past fifty years from many brands including Nautilus, Royal Oaks, Rolexes, Panerai, Omega to a five years old Patek Annual Calendar. It does however offer a rather unique appearance to his watch as you can see. Each decay on the blue dial is different and offers a unique identity to the watch.The dial can of course be replaced by the factory which calls for a full service and down time of easily six months. We do not know how much it'll cost but you can factor in S$5000+/- for the entire job and at our asking price, this is well below any other pieces on sale in the world today.

So if you want a rare watch for a bargain price, then this is an excellent contender not to be missed.

It is sold with a hard cover booklet by Ulysse Nardin covering the history of the three watches. The gold watch shows general surface wear without any major dents nor scratches and a polishing will restore it's lustre again but we're leaving it as it is now for authenticity with some patina. The blue crocodile leather strap has similarly faded but is otherwise in very good condition. The watch works and keeps time with no service history.

A new replacement piece costs CHF134,400.00 today and very few boutiques carry the Trilogy of Time but they are available in limited numbers by order.

For a small price, you can now wear the solar system and constellations on your wrist. How cool can that get?