Yema has built moonphase-free watches for 78 years. Its first one puts the moon at the center of the dial and makes it out of lume. Senans Grande Lune is a 38.5mm dress watch with a solid block of Super-LumiNova for a moon, an in-house micro-rotor movement behind it, and a run capped at 200 pieces per dial color. Price starts at $2,790.
Price: $2,790 on leather, $2,950 on the mesh bracelet (orders open November 11, 2026)
Where to buy: Yema
A moon that stays put while a shadow does the moving
Most moonphase watches print the moon on a disc and rotate the disc under an aperture. Yema flipped the layout. Its moon sits still, sculpted from a solid 3D block of Grade X Super-LumiNova with crater markings across a domed surface, and a rotating mechanical part called a bilobe sweeps over it. The bilobe covers and uncovers the moon the way the Earth’s shadow would, so the phases read off a moon that never moves.
Placement breaks the usual symmetry too. The aperture sits at 7 o’clock instead of 6, sized big enough that the moon reads across a room. At night the whole disc glows with a warm light, and two concentric lume rings around the dial’s center carry the same glow outward. The moon sets with a quick adjustment through the crown, so there’s no pusher to hunt for and no tool to keep track of.
Guilloché in the middle, brushed steel around it
Dial layout runs in sectors. A circular-brushed outer ring carries applied polished baton indexes in alternating lengths, and a concentric Super-LumiNova ring separates it from the center. The center is barleycorn guilloché laid out on a Fibonacci pattern, so the grain spirals the way sunflower seeds and pine cones arrange themselves. Slim polished hands cover hours and minutes. There’s no seconds hand and no date window, and the dial is cleaner for both calls.
Casework follows 1940s dress-watch lines. The bezel steps up in levels above the case middle, mirror-polished, while the case sides are brushed vertically and the lugs curve down without crown guards. A double-domed sapphire crystal with anti-reflective coating tops it. At 8.70mm thick and 46mm lug to lug, the case slides under a cuff and wears like the vintage pieces it takes its shape from. Water resistance is 50 meters.
A micro-rotor built in Morteau
Power comes from Yema’s Calibre Manufacture Morteau 22, the CMM.22. It’s an automatic micro-rotor movement Yema developed and assembles in Morteau, France, with components sourced from within about 70 kilometers of the workshop. The base is the brand’s CMM.20 architecture, 3.7mm thick. Adding the moonphase module, itself just 0.83mm thick, brought the caliber to under 4.7mm, which is how the finished watch stays under 9mm.
Numbers run 28,800 vibrations per hour with a 70-hour power reserve, so the watch comes off Friday night and it’s still running Monday morning. A tungsten micro-rotor on ball bearings does the winding, and the movement wears a deep anthracite finish Yema calls Anthradec, set off by polished screw heads and purple jewel bearings. The finish reads through the sapphire caseback, where each watch also carries its edition number out of 200.
Three colors, two ways to wear each
Black, blue and champagne dials each stop at 200 numbered pieces, and buyers can request a specific edition number at order time, first come first served. Every color pairs with a grained leather strap or an integrated steel mesh bracelet. Black gets light gray leather, blue gets dark gray, and champagne gets black. The leather’s pebbled grain picks up the lunar surface texture, and the buckle is steel with an engraved Yema signature.
Mesh changes the read of the watch. The Milanese bracelet is woven 316L steel, shaped for this case with curved solid end pieces, and it fits with a quick-release system and a sliding clasp that adjusts without tools. On mesh the Grande Lune reads less like a dress watch and more like a daily piece, which suits a watch with a 5-year warranty and free worldwide delivery behind it.
The Swiss moonphase already on Amazon
Raymond Weil’s Millesime Moonphase covers similar ground and it’s orderable today. A 39.5mm steel case on a bracelet carries a silver sector dial with the moon on a disc at 6 o’clock, drawn with a face in the traditional style. Inside is the RW4280, a Sellita-based automatic running about 41 hours. It’s a good watch, and it costs $410 more than the Yema while giving up the in-house movement, the lume moon and the thinner case.
| Watch | Price | Case | Movement | Moonphase | Reserve | Water resistance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yema Senans Grande Lune | $2,790 | 38.5mm steel, 8.7mm thick | CMM.22 in-house micro-rotor automatic | Full-lume 3D moon at 7, quick-set by the crown | 70 hours | 50 meters |
| Raymond Weil Millesime Moonphase | $3,200 | 39.5mm steel, 10.05mm thick | RW4280 automatic (Sellita base) | Disc moon at 6 | 41 hours | 50 meters |
Price: $3,200
Where to buy: Amazon
Neither brand publishes a moonphase correction interval, so the accuracy row comes down to setting: the Yema adjusts through its crown, the Raymond Weil through its own crown and pushers. Pick the Raymond Weil if you want a moonphase on the wrist this week. Pick the Yema if the movement and the moon itself are the point, and you can wait for the order window.
Orders open to the public on November 11 at 10 am Eastern, only at yema.com, and an email signup gets a private reservation link a day early. Shipping starts the first week of December, in the order reservations came in. Six hundred watches across three colors, and the edition closes when they sell through.
Price: $2,790 on leather, $2,950 on the mesh bracelet (orders open November 11, 2026)
Where to buy: Yema
