Up until now, our sights have been set firmly on the majesty of our home planet and the story of mankind first setting foot on the lunar surface – culminating in our Terra Meteorite, Blue Dot and Grey Dot models. However, with the release of the Inner Worlds collection, all that has changed; we’ve expanded our horizons and taken a trip into the innermost regions of the Solar System. This article takes a deep dive into the inspirations behind the collection and tells the stories of the extraordinary materials contained inside each watch.
The Inner Worlds Collection
The Inner Worlds collection consists of five limited-edition timepieces that pay homage to the signature hues and textures of Earth’s nearest celestial neighbors, incorporating interplanetary materials and space-flown artifacts that celebrate the legacy of mankind’s greatest achievements. Featuring textured enamel dials, Swiss ETA 2892 movements and remarkable material inclusions, Inner Worlds represents Diatom’s most ambitious undertaking yet – one that draws inspiration from the inner reaches of our very own Solar System.
Enamel dials
Perhaps the most standout feature of every Inner Worlds timepiece is its textured enamel dial, the creation of which is a remarkably involved undertaking. The process begins with precision stamping and forming operations to create the desired shape, at which point the dial is embossed to introduce subtle textures reminiscent of the planetary surface it’s inspired by. After being sand blasted and electroplated, multiple coatings of ultra-thin enamel are applied by hand, with every translucent layer and subsequent curing cycle intensifying the dial’s colour and amplifying the depth of its underlying contours. All told, there’s several days of work that goes into every dial – and that’s before any text or indices are applied.
Despite their dials going through similar manufacturing processes, Inner Worlds Mercury, Venus, Earth, Moon and Mars are truly unique in terms of design language, narrative and material inclusions, with each piece taking inspiration from a unique celestial body:
Inner Worlds Mercury
The design language of Inner Worlds Mercury is inspired by the surface of our Solar System’s innermost inhabitant, a scorched and barren landscape shaped by ancient meteorite impacts and solar winds. The dial’s diverse palette echoes NASA’s iconic narrow-band composite images, depicting an intricate mosaic of Mercury’s disparate geological regions.
Inner Worlds Mercury also contains a piece of Liberty Bell 7, the spacecraft that was propelled by a Mercury-Redstone rocket on one of mankind’s earliest suborbital flights. This iconic material has been stabilised using a range of alloying agents and forged into a custom rotor, providing owners with a direct connection to the Mercury programme that paved the way for later Apollo missions.
Inner Worlds Venus
Travelling outwards away from the Sun, Inner Worlds Venus captures the essence of an alien world obscured by dense, almost-impenetrable clouds. Subtle shifts in dial’s colour echo the contrast of Venus’ luminous atmosphere and its scorched ashen surface, capturing the duality of an object that’s ever-present in our night sky yet still full of mystery.
The timepiece also contains magnesium-alloy skin recovered from the exterior of a mission-flown Atlas-Agena, the very same class of launch vehicle that propelled the first ever probe to Venus. The material has been combined with a plethora of judiciously chosen alloying agents and forged into a custom rotor, providing owners with a genuine piece of the rocket that enabled mankind’s earliest exploration of the Solar System.
Inner Worlds Earth
Back in more familiar territory, Inner Worlds Earth’s design language embraces our home planet as a dynamic world of weather, water and passing light. The dial evokes a sense of softness and clarity reminiscent of oceanic reflections or shadows across a gently undulating landscape, offering wearers the quiet recognition of home.
The mission-flown material in this watch originates from Apollo 13’s Command Module Odyssey in the form of its space-flown Kapton thermal insulation – used to regulate the craft’s internal temperature during the flight. This iconic material has been transformed into a proprietary alloy and machined into a custom rotor, offering wearers a tangible connection to the most challenging rescue mission in the history of spaceflight.
Inner Worlds Moon
Moving onto Earth’s only natural satellite, the design language of Inner Worlds Moon captures the essence of a world dominated by ashen regolith, volcanic plains and ancient craters. Subtle shifts in the dial’s palette echo the contrast between dark impact basins and the lighter surrounding ejecta, presenting an abstract interpretation of the lunar surface without referencing specific geographical regions.
Inner Worlds Moon contains material from the NWA 11788 meteorite, a fragment of the lunar surface ejected during a high-energy cosmic impact. Petrographic analysis has verified its composition to be feldspathic breccia, confirming the meteorite’s origin to be somewhere within the lunar highlands. This genuine Moon rock has been applied to the watch’s dial in the form of a fine coating, bringing the lunar surface within reaching distance of every owner.
Inner Worlds Mars
Finally, Inner Worlds Mars presents an abstract view of the Red Planet’s undulating terrain, a dry and windswept landscape shaped by the violence of ancient geological activity. The rust-toned palette remains deliberately subdued, reflecting the way the planet’s surface is illuminated by a cooler, more distant sun than we experience on Earth.
Every timepiece contains material from the NWA 13187 Martian Shergotite meteorite. The rock’s basaltic composition suggests that it originated within one of Mars’ younger volcanic plains – such as Elysium Panitia or the area surrounding Olympus Mons – before being ejected into space during a major impact. This authenticated Martian rock has been applied to the watch’s dial in the form of a fine coating, offering Inner Worlds Mars owners the chance to wear a genuine piece of the Red Planet.
The spirit of early space exploration
It’s not just the design language and material inclusions that make this new range of watches so special, though. To imbue the Inner Worlds collection with the spirit of early space exploration, each and every timepiece is launched on a journey beyond the Armstrong limit, reaching altitudes of over 120,000 feet. Here, onboard cameras capture the timepieces floating against the blackness of space, the curvature of the Earth and the thin blue line of its atmosphere, providing every owner with a powerful visual record of their watch’s voyage into the unknown.
Choose your world
Inner Worlds is without a doubt Diatom’s most ambitious undertaking yet, taking almost two years of design and development – and countless prototypes – to bring our vision to life. Now that it’s finally available to explore, be sure to check out the entire collection here and secure your very own piece of the inner Solar System.