How one of the blackest substances on earth ended up in a luxury watch

HMoser & Cie may well be the only WATCHMAKER with a sense of humour. When it’s not busy producing elegant DRESS WATCHES with beautiful fume dials and COMPLICATIONS, it’s making a statement with bizarre one-offs made of Swiss cheese, plants or the hallmark features of other brands’ iconic models. For last year’s April Fool’s joke, the brand revealed a concept watch you couldn’t even read the time off because everything was supposedly coated in VANTABLACK, one of the world’s darkest materials.

As it turns out, interest and demand for such a ridiculous concept was so overwhelming that H MOSER & CIE decided to follow through on the idea – with practical revisions, of course – and it resulted in the Venturer Concept Vantablack series last year. For 2020, the collection welcomes new Venturer Vantablack Black Hands models with an even stealthier look with barely-there hands. Read full article

H. Moser & Cie. returns with three Vantablack novelties

The watch with the darkest dial in watchmaking just got darker. Following last year’s Venturer Concept Vantablack, H. MOSER & CIE. refines the watch by blackening the hands for this year’s collection. The result is just as austere and enigmatic, but perhaps even more so now. The Venturer Vantablack Black Hands is presented in two sizes – 39mm and 43mm. The smaller watch boasts a precious 18k white gold case, while the XL model is democratically encased in stainless steel. Read full article

Their Dark Materials

Vantablack is a pigment that reaches a level of darkness that’s so intense, it’s kind of upsetting. It’s so black it’s like looking at a hole cut out of the universe. “Vantablack is striking when you look at it… because it [doesn’t look] like something is colored black. Read full article

A Watch That Is Blacker Than Black

A new limited-edition watch has a tourbillon swirling in what appears to be a deep, infinite black hole. But, in fact, the mesmerizing dial is covered with what the National Physical Laboratory, Britain’s measurements standards institute, has verified as the darkest material on Earth. Read full article

Tech teardown — how 2019 faded to black

The colour specialists Pantone like to try to sum up a year in a colour. For 2019, it was Living Coral. For 2020, it is Classic Blue, which it says is “suggestive of the sky at dusk”. Read full article

Moser Endeavor Vantablack Tourbillon: Absolute black without logo

For this new 42mm white gold, the independent house Moser & Cie. chose materials derived from astrophysics or borrowed from the aerospace industry. Result? A Vantablack dial with no index or logo and aluminum components that showcase the tourbillon sublimating its hypnotic beauty. Read full article

Vantablack – More Than Just the Darkest Material in the World

The first time I heard about Vantablack was within space applications, such as telescopes, before starting to see the material popping up all over the internet for aesthetic purposes. The main uses have been around optical sensor systems, such as camera lenses and space optics. Now that the automotive industry has developed into a technology-focused sector, it’s starting to be used in lenses and radar systems that will be implemented in vehicles over the next few years as we approach the age of autonomy. Read full article

BMW have created the World’s first Vantablack Car

THE FRANKFURT MOTOR SHOW will be the backdrop for the unveiling of the first and only vehicle in the world to feature a Vantablack® VBx2 coating in a collaboration between BMW, Surrey Nano Systems... Read full article

BMW Unveils X6 in the world’s ‘blackest black’

The one-off X6 sprayed with a Vantablack VBx2 finish will be unveiled at the Frankfurt Motor Show, where BMW will premiere the third-generation of the vehicle, according to a statement from the automaker. Read full article

How carbon nanotubes built this bizarre ultrablack material

Imagine shining a flashlight on a black surface and seeing... nothing. This happened to me back in June outside a small coastal town in the UK. I was at Surrey NanoSystems, the company that makes the black material I was marveling at. It’s called Vantablack, and it’s one of the darkest substances on Earth. Read full article

13 Unique Timepieces For The Only Watch 2019 Charity Auction

Every two years, some of the finest watchmakers create one-of-a-kind timepieces that will go under the hammer at the Only Watch 2019 charity auction for research on Duchenne muscular dystrophy Read full article

HOW GESAFFELSTEIN’S COACHELLA SET TRICKED MINDS WITH THE WORLD’S BLACKEST BLACK

One of the most visually impressive performances at this year’s Coachella was special, not just because of what the audience could see, but because of what they couldn’t see. Behind Gesaffelstein, the French record producer and DJ, was a monolith covered entirely in Vantablack. Read full article