You Don’t Need a Yacht to Appreciate a Marine Chronometer

In the days before GPS, the accuracy of a ship’s chronometer might be a matter of life and death. Navigators used them to determine longitude by measuring the local time via a sextant and a star map, then comparing it against the time at one’s home port precisely tracked by the clock.

For more than 85 years, Wempe’s products have remained ruthlessly reliable, even if today’s consumer creations from the Hamburg-based watchmaker are more likely to adorn the offices of captains of industry than bridges of ships. A collaboration with superyacht designer Tim Heywood, the $91,825 Coco de Mer marine chronometer, comes in gold-plated brass on a lockable gimbal, all housed in a box meant to evoke a Lodoicea maldivica coconut, known for its ability to float long distances unscathed.