What are your thoughts on the design? ๐ŸŽ๐ŸŽ๐ŸŽ

Our idea with this new model was to celebrate generations of racing horology, with subtle nods to the likes of Audi Sport, Porsche, McLaren and Shelby Cobra, all part of that 1960s golden age of racing.ย 

The design is a balance between vintage aesthetics, 80โ€™s Bauhaus design lines and modern-day technology complete with a tachymeter. โฑ

We would love to hear your thoughts about the design! ๐Ÿ’ฌ

Reply
ยท

nice design, looks clean. is it better to give another colour for the hand?ย 

ยท

I was kind of wondering about the hands too when it comes to readability. Maybe make the hands near the pinion white and move that black color to the tips? Idk

ยท
Unholy

nice design, looks clean. is it better to give another colour for the hand?ย 

I second this motion. Black framed hands would be far more legible on a busy white dial. Otherwise, fantastic design!ย 

ยท
IanCognito

I second this motion. Black framed hands would be far more legible on a busy white dial. Otherwise, fantastic design!ย 

hell yeah, or stainless hand with the same amount of lume would be nice i guess. im not watch expert for sure, just sharing an opinion ๐Ÿ™๐Ÿป

ยท

Do you really want my opinion? Ok...

Who buys most watches? ย Middle aged men. What is one thing that middle aged men have lost (besides their "fastball")? Short range vision. These white hands tell me that you hate me and that you don't want me to know what time it is. The lack of contrast is an unforced error.

How much writing should a dial have? Just enough. With all of the writing on this dial it is about as Bauhaus as a J.C. Penney catalog. Might as well tell me Mr. Andersen's favorite movie quote on the dial too. All surplusage should be moved to the case back. So, the name of the watch and the designer: to the back with you.

Let's talk about logos. The purpose of a logo is to replace words with an image that evokes the brand. Watch brands have never given in to this entirely. Omega is concerned that you may not know your Greek alphabet. Even Rolex doesn't trust its logo to do its job. Either the logo evokes the brand or it doesn't. If you don't trust your logo trust your name and lose the logo. The logo looks like an art student tried to recreate Elgin's in the dark. Simplify that dial.

The bezel is probably unreadable for me in the flesh, as they say. But, it looks nice and bezels are mostly superfluous anyway.

Lastly, the second best color for a second hand is orange. You use orange on a subdial. A little orange on the second hand would tie them together nicely.

This watch looks like a 90's reimagining of 60's style. We are about to have a rediscovery of the 90's so that isn't necessarily a criticism.

ยท

I like it, but echo the guys comments here. Needs more contrast in hands. Black hands with Red seconds. Think the SPEEDMASTER CK 2998 or Perhaps take a leaf out of Farer book and a little colour on the dial too. The sub dials look great and are perfectly proportioned. Good luck

ยท

My firm logo:

Image
ยท

I think it looks good!!

ยท

I love the stainless steel bezel. ย I'd like stainless hands too. ย Or at least something other than white. ย Also the less written on a dial the better I think. ย But all in all, looks great.

ยท

Too white, too bright, too sterile. ย Feels like an homage to cleanrooms, not sports cars. ย The white-on-white hands/dial combo is egregious. ย 

ยท

I agree that it needs black hands. I'd also remove all text from the dial. The bracelet looks okay, but I know the male endlink might turn some away. If it were my watch, I'd immediately put it on a leather or fabric strap. I'd also recommend giving black indices a shot. Last, an orange tip on the chrono hand would tie it together. I'm largely echoing things that have already been said, but it's because I agree. On the positives, I am a fan of the simple pushers, general dial layout, case, bezel, and no-date.ย 

ยท

I appreciate you accepting feedback from the community on the design - I imagine its no easy task designing a watch. Iโ€™ll offer my thoughts respectfully, and hopefully Mr Skov Andersen takes no offense.

  • Direction of this watch-design
    I am a bit confused. Itโ€™s meant to be inspired by 1960s race cars (it says as much on the dial) but you also mention 1980s bauhaus design. I am struggling to find the former. Is it the use of color on the sub dial, or the fact that as the chronograph with a SS tachymeter bezel it resembles a watch possibly from that era? When I think about the cars from this era, I imagine curvy/voluptuous sculpted bodies along with the often bold/loud color schemes of their liveries. I think if itโ€™s the colors, perhaps injecting more of that into the other sub-dials may work - a simple solution would be to paint the other two sub-dial hands the same red color being used. I think this would give it some added color/character to a watch I feel reads far to sterile without going over the top (like painting a racing stripe on it). I think sharing some imagery of where youโ€˜re pulling inspiration would go a long way of telling us the story at how you arrived here.
  • Fonts and Line-weights
    I think another round of refinement could be made on the sub-dial and bezels fonts and line-weights. I find the type sizes and weights to be diminutive. The fonts when paired with the lack of differing line-weights makes it difficult too read without giving my eye somewhere to relax/settle on. This could also be another subtle opportunity to inject the 1960 DNA, by opting for a typeface (at least on the sub-dials) that harkens a bit more back to that era. My bet, however, is the typeface where you are invoking that โ€œBauhaus aestheticโ€, which is fine but (for me) means that the weights of both the font and the markers would be crucial in striking the right balance of modern and readability.ย 
  • Text on the watch
    Again, further scrutinizing what is important and necessary would be a very โ€œBauhausโ€ thing to do. Thats not to say it canโ€™t exist, I think there ample opportunity to note the designer and the โ€œ1960 Racingโ€œ on the caseback. If the designers name is deemed necessary, then I suggest dropping the โ€œbyโ€ and placing the name over the 6 oโ€™clock sub-dial.
  • Hands
    I agree with the others in that some black bordered hands (opposed to white) would make reading the time much easier.
  • Logo/Name
    This is where I must say with all the respect in the world, I do not like the name of your company. Its two-words that paint you into a corner, and I myself would opt to not wear a vintage-style watch that literally said vintage on the dial. This is only MY opinion and therefore hold as much water as any other strangerโ€™s on the internet. I think your logo offers a simple solution, as you could use it on the dial sans the brand name. As for the logo, the things I will say about it is that it is nondescript and inoffensive - and therefore perfect in this application.

Good luck on future designs - my bet is this one is already in the bag, but perhaps opportunities ahead to refine a 2.0 version using the feedback your getting from the community here! ๐Ÿค™

ยท

I immediately thought of the 90s/00s McLaren or Oracle Racing colab Tags, and then I thought I would much rather buy one of those options. Probably not what you wanted to hear, but hey, Iโ€™m being honest.

ยท

I tend to agree with many of the comments already made. Chronographs are my favorite complication, but the issue I have with many of them is poor legibility, and with white hands on a white dial, this would be extremely hard to read. As @Katimepieces pointed out, swapping the black/white would work, and bright contrasting chrono hands (such as the orange ย @Aurelian suggested) would add a nice additional pop of color. As @bevelwerks pointed out, using that same color for all chrono hands would be a nice touch. I'd resist any temptation to add additional color to the sub-dials (other than the hands), since the way that the sub-dials currently blend into the main dial greatly assists with visibility.ย 

I also agree with moving the superfluous text to the back, and having the word "vintage" on the dial (or even the caseback) makes it feel very inauthentic.ย 

I'd also ditch the 1/5 second hash marks - they clutter the design, and are meaningless with a quartz chrono, or even a mechanical chrono without an appropriate beat rate. I also find a tachymeter bezel to be a useless addition, and would much prefer a bi-directional 120 click bezel that could be used as an additional timing option. Given that this appears to be a 60 minute chrono, having a marked rotating bezel would allow the wearer to set the bezel to the hour marker to facilitate timing of longer events, for example.

Finally, I must say that I completely fail to understand what you mean by "subtle nods to the likes of Audi Sport, Porsche, McLaren and Shelby Cobra".ย 

ยท
Aurelian

Do you really want my opinion? Ok...

Who buys most watches? ย Middle aged men. What is one thing that middle aged men have lost (besides their "fastball")? Short range vision. These white hands tell me that you hate me and that you don't want me to know what time it is. The lack of contrast is an unforced error.

How much writing should a dial have? Just enough. With all of the writing on this dial it is about as Bauhaus as a J.C. Penney catalog. Might as well tell me Mr. Andersen's favorite movie quote on the dial too. All surplusage should be moved to the case back. So, the name of the watch and the designer: to the back with you.

Let's talk about logos. The purpose of a logo is to replace words with an image that evokes the brand. Watch brands have never given in to this entirely. Omega is concerned that you may not know your Greek alphabet. Even Rolex doesn't trust its logo to do its job. Either the logo evokes the brand or it doesn't. If you don't trust your logo trust your name and lose the logo. The logo looks like an art student tried to recreate Elgin's in the dark. Simplify that dial.

The bezel is probably unreadable for me in the flesh, as they say. But, it looks nice and bezels are mostly superfluous anyway.

Lastly, the second best color for a second hand is orange. You use orange on a subdial. A little orange on the second hand would tie them together nicely.

This watch looks like a 90's reimagining of 60's style. We are about to have a rediscovery of the 90's so that isn't necessarily a criticism.

Excellent point about vision sir. Everyone who touts smaller watches is going to change their tune once the presbyopia sets in