Laurent Ferrier Classic Moon

The fifth major Laurent Ferrier calibre wasn’t what anyone expected in 2018: an Annual Calendar. Until then, it felt like everyone had been waiting and hoping, imaging what could be with calendar complication and one of the great independent old guard. But what the world saw in the Montre École was not what anyone expected. This looked like a vintage triple calendar, a 6062 or something, but with an annual calendar built in. As a way to reference the past respectfully but still move the game on, that’s just kind of rad. This is the follow up, released this year. It’s the same annual calendar. But now, in a nod to Mr. Ferrier’s time at Patek, there’s a moonphase in the petite seconds. And it’s luminous. It’s like the modern 2497 lineage that Patek never carried on, reimagined by someone who knows it intimately.

The visual updates alongside the addition of the moonphase are considerable. Rather the straight lugs, the classic Galet case is back, pebble-form. That’s a good thing, for me at least, a softer and more delicate object. Unlike the non-calendar Montre École, this is not the micro-rotor natural escapement, but a manual with pawl winding and a power reserve on caseback. The day and month windows have evolved from the 3448, in a really lovely way, by joining their bevels to an almost ‘widescreen’ impression. That is probably the most contentious point of its design. And if you even wanted to see the exception where Roman numerals can look modern, these elongated quarters are it.

Laurent Ferrier may or may not make a QP in future. I find myself not longing that much more for one now, this hits the spot (Now a chronograph, on the other hand, I’d kill for). This is about the most creative take on the classic complicated calendar since the Octa Calendrier. It’s just distinct, which really can’t be said of many perpetual calendars. Is it perfect? No, just very close. I’d love to see a natural escapement in pretty much everything there. But it’s really, really charming, balancing modernity with Laurent Ferrier’s experience and tastes well. And if this muted blue-grey dial with a calendar track in a blue so desaturated that it’s almost white isn’t your thing, well, you’re wrong.

This example is fresh to market from our friends in Paris, Antoine de Macedo. It’s a touch above retail, which is to be expected in these very early days of the model. It’s the full set, the actual example we’re talking about is specifically the one in the wristshot.