In Nijehaske they have stargazers at work: watchmakers who keep an eye on the huge firmament above them as well as the minuscule components on their workbenches. The Friesian watch house with its roots in Leiden – where the founder of the watch house of the same name, Christiaan Van der Klaauw, comes from – has a reputation to maintain when it comes to presenting celestial bodies in wristwatches.
With the Supernova the maison proves that an astronomical complication doesn’t always have to result in astronomical prices. The 44m Christiaan van der Klaauw Supernova is being built in the high-tech movement atelier just outside Heerenveen for a price of around 7,000 euro. A very striking detail of this watch is the luminescent moon phase indicator at 6 o’clock. When the moon image is left of centre the moon is in the first quarter. When the image is in the middle it’s a full moon, and when it is right of centre, the moon is in the last quarter. If the moon image is invisible it’s a new moon. More terrestrial is the presence of a date indicator and of course the regular time display.
Together with the CVDK Hypernova, the Supernova completes the ‘nova’ family.