Minimalist wristwear
All they do is tell the time, with an elegant style to reflect their mechanical simplicity. By Ben Oliver
In watch making, any addition to a standard threehanded watch design is known as a ‘complication’. Some get very complicated indeed, such as perpetual calendars, which know when it’s a leap year, but even a simple date window is a ‘complication’. Shifting the seconds hand to its own sub-dial, as these three new watches do, might look like a complication but it’s actually mechanically simpler than getting all three hands to run co-axially. It also makes for a great-looking watch.
01 I Autodromo Intereuropa $1250 plus VAT
Car-obsessed New York-based designer Bradley Price hasn’t hit a du note since he founded watch maker Autodromo in 2011. His latest takes its name from the Italian GP support race of the ’50s and ’60s, contested by roadgoing coupés. You buy direct and pay in dollars: shipping is free but you pay VAT when it arrives. autodromo.com
02 I Longines Heritage Military 1938 £2020
Closely based on a Longines design for British servicemen in the Second World War, but grown slightly to a more modern size of 43mm, this comes with two leather straps and a tool to change them: a stylistic choice unavailable to those who were issued with it 80 years ago. Only 1938 will be made: reserve one online. longines.co.uk
03 I Nomos Tangente midnight blue £1620
It doesn’t get much simpler than this watch from Bauhaus-inspired German watch maker Nomos. The Tangente’s thin movement is beautifully finished. If you run out of things to look at on that simple dial you can flip the watch over and see the movement run through the sapphire crystal caseback. nomos-glashuette.com