Tiny precision clockwork solar-system

By Cory Doctorow at 5:18 am Thursday, Aug 23

The Richard Mille Planetarium Tellurium is a miniature precision clockwork orrery, priced "well into seven figures." It's the kind of heart-stoppingly beautiful chindogu that makes me wish that the Chinese would knock off more stuff faster. I want about a hundred of these.

First of all, the diameter of the earth has for practical and aesthetic reasons been notably enlarged in the Planetarium-Tellurium (in reality, the earth is 109 times smaller than the sun) allowing a good view of the continents and indeed of countries. All the planets can be seen perfectly, although these, as explained above, are not to scale regarding size and distance. The indications (date, equation of time, zodiac) are represented in an easily readable and consistent way, and on a separate area from the layout depicting the rotation of the planets.

Link