Taking stuff off the backburner - dNg Design Journal Ch. 8
QOTD: What is an underrated aspect of a watch design that you wish more brands would integrate?
As always, I love responding to comments! Any feedback is appreciated!
Hello again Crunchers! Got a couple new & crazy design concepts I took off the backburner for y’all to feast your eyes upon - the first of which is this:
This is the Radiance 1. I did not initially think it would be in a cushion case but I decided to roll with it. Couldn’t draw a circle worth a damn on my phone at the time, so I transposed the draft from my phone to my laptop.
I mainly drew inspiration for this look from a pocket watch I found in a book, The Mastery of Time. It’s a 24 hour indicator watch, but the numerals change from AM to PM every time the hour hand passes the 1 o’clock mark. It’s a dated, unnecessary and complicated concept, but still awesome!
The second one - one I really like in concept, is the Templarii in Retrogrado (Templar in Retrograde):
I took some very obvious styling cues from Vacheron Constantin (my fave of the holy trinity - love the Overseas) and turned this beauty into a jump hour with Breguet-like retrograde minutes and seconds.
Ridiculous? Yes.
Expensive? Most likely.
F-ing Awesome? Absolutely!
(Hotel? Trivago. Had to.)
I’ll also quickly share this one:
Globetrotter was supposed to be the first of my many sketches into my new book, but sadly it’s probably also the last. As I was sketching this Autavia/Master Geographic lovechild, the pencil markings kept smudging everywhere on the 55gsm paper, making it infuriating to work with.
Anyway, happy first of May to everyone! In June, I’ll make a post asking all of you which of the designs I’ve posted so far you would like to see more of! :)) - M (dNg)
I am not Gerald Genta. I like to draw watch ideas. They usually suck. #defsnotgenta for more.
I'm a fan of the stealth power reserve indicator that is cleverly hidden in plain sight and isn't some ugly needle.
There has been at least one wrist watch with the switching 24 hour indices like that, but they've always been on a convenient circle. As the wheel underneath only rotates 1/24th of a turn, your design is likely feasible and less obvious. The larger cardinal point indices help too.
I suspect the center is the absolute worst place to put a jump hour window in terms of internal layout, but aesthetically it works. I forget what software you use but look forward to seeing constant radius arcs someday. The motion of retrograde seconds seems so violent to me that I can't see myself wearing them.
The geometric trick of two circles intersecting at the center and radius has appeal. I'm betting this has some name if one went to design school.
I'm a fan of the stealth power reserve indicator that is cleverly hidden in plain sight and isn't some ugly needle.
There has been at least one wrist watch with the switching 24 hour indices like that, but they've always been on a convenient circle. As the wheel underneath only rotates 1/24th of a turn, your design is likely feasible and less obvious. The larger cardinal point indices help too.
I suspect the center is the absolute worst place to put a jump hour window in terms of internal layout, but aesthetically it works. I forget what software you use but look forward to seeing constant radius arcs someday. The motion of retrograde seconds seems so violent to me that I can't see myself wearing them.
The geometric trick of two circles intersecting at the center and radius has appeal. I'm betting this has some name if one went to design school.
Thanks again for the feedback Oscar!
While I think some power reserve needles deserve some love (I’m looking at you, Orient Star Outdoor!) I mostly agree with you on that. I really hate when it sticks out of a random part of a watch without much decoration. It’s literally the one thing I hate the Lange 1 for. The Seiko Speedtimer does really well when it comes to hiding their power reserve indicator, too - but Since it’s a solar you probably wouldn’t notice anyways.
I just really enjoy the idea of a hidden 24h indicator, really. I think it cleans up the dial quite a bit, and to be honest 24h indicators doesn’t make much sense if you’re not going for a Sport or Field aesthetic. I would love to see it dressed up a little someday, and I guess that’s why I wanted to do it so much.
Yeah, the Templar would be an absolute horror show to manufacture unless your name starts with Max and ends with Büsser. Maybe I can adjust the design so the seconds & minutes rotate 360 degrees, but the arcs stay the same. Like the Xeric Halograph!
And I don’t know the professional term for two circles intersecting, either. The only thing I can come up with is “Venn Diagram.”
24 hour dials, or AM/PM (or even the silly sun/moon) makes sense for manual watches with a date display. It makes sure your day changes at midnight instead of noon.
I was referring to a pattern that would typically have more repeating elements but thanks to wikipedia, I was originally thinking overlapping circles grid but more specifically this is actually a vesica piscis. Whether this design element is underused in horology or I just previously failed to notice it will be revealed in the next few days.