Astro II Constellation Watch - Astronomy/Astronomical Night Sky View with Rotating Planisphere map Complication

Is it the most practical timepiece ever? No. But the aesthetic is immaculate, and lets be honest, I bought this solely for the look, and on that front it absolutely delivers. The watch part is great, and although the planisphere is small which makes it difficult to read, in my opinion this is more of a statement piece than a functional one. You also have to manually operate the planisphere with one of the dials; it’s not automatic or integrated into the clockwork. I get lots of compliments about it, but do frequently end up having to explain to people what a planisphere is and how it works. When I actually need to use a planisphere to identify constellations it’s much more convenient to just use my phone, but I love wearing this watch anyway - it’s so unique and interesting and looks gorgeous on my wrist.

So cool. I love the look, and idea. The recipient has worn this daily for a year now, and hasn't gotten it scratched or witness any issues. It is beautiful to look at and really fun to show people. The issue is... We don't know how it works! The details are confusing, we can't find any instructions online, and the ones we received are incomplete. The actual intricacies and cool details are so tiny it's near impossible to actually see. Though, it came in the coolest packaging, perfect for gifting!

I really want to give this a good rating because it's so beautiful but I am pretty frustrated with it actually. The instructions that come with it SUCK! I wish I had known that before I spent so much money because I really want to use its functions but I don't know how and it seems really hard to get any info from the seller. For such a nice watch it should have a better manual.

It has been on my to-do list for a while to write a detailed review about this watch. I actually got it for my celestial/cosmos-themed wedding last September and I have been an novice astronomy enthusiast my entire life (having been named after a constellation!). The watch is gorgeous and was PERFECT for the wedding outfit. For context: I know practically nothing about mechanical/quartz analog watches. I instead have been sporting various satellite smart watches for day-to-day use for my entire adult life. I was put off some by other reviews that complained about it being too hard to figure out, but I'm glad I set those concerns aside because the watch is fantastic and contains an unreal amount of information for those willing to just sit down and read the detailed instructions that come with it. Initially I was going to include detailed instructions of my own as part of my review but I'll save those to share elsewhere on the internet when I have time to actually record a video. In fairness, when I purchased the timepiece, I had been under the assumption that the constellation dial would spin in tandem with the normal automatic components of the watch. I pictured being able to just look at the watch face and figure out which constellations would be overhead. That's not how this watch works and the timelapse I aim to include with this review shows just that. I'm of the mind that it's a reasonable misconception for those like me who know nothing about watches. To actually access the vast amount of information on this watch requires a manual adjustment of the constellation disc, and to actually see that vast amount of information requires magnification. The makers suggest using an 8x loupe. I suggest using astronomy software and trying out different dates throughout the year to make sure you can use the watch correctly. But people leaving negative reviews because they refuse to read the directions and to put in any time to learn how it works is just absurd and disingenuous.

I returned this watch because it was too hard to read. I never was given a refund. Returned thru UPS.

Bought this for my kid. Hard to figure it out, and very small font on watch. Difficult to read hands. Pass.

Because I've been using my telescope more frequently lately, I've gotten more interested in the local sidereal time, which tells us what part of the sky will be on our southern meridian (due south from you), especially the sidereal time when it gets dark, i.e. what the Right Ascension will be due south at that time. Since I live at 50 degrees North, it gets dark at 10 or 11 pm in the summer and at 4 or 5 pm in the winter, I need an extra measure of flexibility. This watch is a manual analog computer that provides a fairly accurate estimate of the corresponding sidereal time when the user uses the planisphere dial to align a time of interest with a given date. The watch has a normal clockwork that I keep on local standard time year round, and whose movement establishes the 12 o'clock and 6 o'clock positions--the hours are not marked but your prior experience with clock faces will help you make out the current time. A 12-month calendar is inscribed on the face as well with March 21 at the 12 o'clock position and September 21 at the six o'clock position. An outline of an astronomer's horizon in white overlays the watch face, so that the south meridian runs from the 12 o'clock position to the six o'clock position. Refer to that outline to coordinate your view of the sky with the local time. The idea is to find your current local (standard) time on the adjustable 24-hour planisphere dial and adjust it until the local time aligns with today's date on the inscribed calendar. When that's done, find the 6 o'clock/south position of the watch and read the planisphere dial at that position to get a very good estimate of the corresponding local sidereal time--i.e. what stars are up at that time. So if I know when darkness is expected today, I can move that hour on the 24-hour dial to today's date on the calendar and the astronomer's horizon will tell me what parts of the sky will be available that evening. These days, I could consult many apps for this, but cloud cover comes and goes, and this watch makes it easy to do a quick check if I notice a break in the weather coming up. Now that I've gotten used to this small analog computer, I've begun to use it to track/model the progress of the sun's RA over the course of a year by aligning the 12h position on the adjustable dial with a given day's date. I've also begun to pay attention the RA positions of the planets and of other objects I might want to try to observe. Pluto just came out of retrograde (during which its RA decreases night by night heading west) and Saturn will come out of retrograde in a week to two. Jupiter and Mars are currently both in retrograde, too, but you do need other apps to keep track of those. It doesn't matter really but it is as interesting astronomy and the Asto II watch drew my attention to all of this. I don't really use the attactive planisphere map except for its ecliptic and celestial equator lines. So I'm getting a lot of use out of this watch and I can recommend it to people interested in amateur astronomy.