Three of the best moon-phase watches, from Girard-Perregaux, Audemars Piguet and Vacheron Constantin

This week, I was going to provide another update on my aquatic travails, but I’ve been land-bound since I lost my drone in the Indian Ocean. I can’t lie, I’ve lost my zest for this swimming lark. Just the thought brings up all these awful memories. Perhaps things will change; time, after all, is a great healer. Or perhaps I should just buy another drone. We’ll see, dear reader, we’ll see. Damn it, I’ll just get another drone.

Let’s look at moon-phase watches as I haven’t for a while, which is strange as it’s one of my favourite complications. We’ll begin with the only dedicated moon-phase watch of this selection, the Girard-Perregaux 1966 Blue Moon (above).

A classy dress watch, the 1966 Blue Moon’s lack of features, numerals and indicators gives prominence to the moon-phase indicator at the six o’clock position. The dial’s colour scheme – midnight blue with a smoky effect – is a little on the nose given the lunar func­tion, but it works well and offers a nice alternative to the usual white. I’m also a fan of the case. It measures 40mm and comes in matt-black-coated steel, again not some­thing one expects of a dress watch but very welcome.

The only other feature on the watch is the date wheel, which rings the moon-phase indicator. Inside is a solid GP03300-0115 movement with 46 hours of power reserve. Although you’ll never take this watch near open water, it has 30 metres of water resistance and the strap is a rugged, rubberised alligator leather that’s matt black on the outside and matt blue on the inside. The 1966 Blue Moon is priced at HK$75,200.

Next, we have two perpetual calendar watches that feature a moon phase as a sturdy support feature. As the 1966 Blue Moon showed, moon-phase watches can be a draw without the need for extra features, but I’ve always felt a perpetual calendar best shows off a lunar compli­cation. The Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Selfwinding Perpetual Calendar Ultra-Thin is as cutting edge as watches get. Here the moon phase is given promi­nence at the 12 o’clock position.