Killing time: The unconventional watch brands creating the timepieces of the future
Introducing the forward-looking horologists calling time on traditional watchmaking
Watches with multiple faces, satellite discs instead of hands, and mechanical movements used to push liquids through tubes in order to display the time. Watches inspired by houses, the solar system, and Arthurian legends… It sounds wacky – hare-brained, even. But someone’s got to move the needle. These niche watchmakers are pushing the boundaries of the industry by creating fascinating, unorthodox timepieces.
Maximilian Büsser
Maximilian Büsser, formerly of Harry Winston, deconstructs traditional elements of watchmaking to create far-out time-telling ‘machines’ that challenge our notions of what a watch should, and can, look like. His Horological Machine Nº11 Architect, for example, is inspired by the ‘bubble’ houses of the mid- to late-20th century, buildings by the likes of Wallace Neff and Oscar Niemeyer. What, pondered Büsser, would a watch look like if it were a house?
His answer, crafted in collaboration with watch and product designer Eric Giroud, is the eleventh ‘machine’ that MB&F – that’s Max Büsser and Friends – has created since the ‘horological concept laboratory’ was formed in 2005. Four faces, or ‘rooms’, radiate from a central flying tourbillon housed under a double-domed sapphire roof. The time ‘room’ displays hours and minutes; the next acts as a power reserve indicator; the third houses a thermometer; the final contains a tiny MB&F battle-axe motif, which serves as the crown. Choose which room you look at by rotating the entire ‘house’; each 45° clockwise turn delivers 72 minutes of power directly to the barrel. After 10 complete rotations, the HM11 is at its maximum autonomy of 96 hours.
POA, mbandf.com
Urwerk
Urwerk’s UR-100V LightSpeed is a watch from the future, or should that be past? Providing a visual representation of the time it takes for sunlight to reach the planets of our solar system, the LightSpeed addresses our out-of-step relationship with the present; by the time sunlight reaches us, the sun is already eight minutes and thirty seconds into the future. Other stars are already dead. Looking at the night’s sky is to perceive a time, a past, that no longer exists. Handily, the watch also tells the time down here on Earth, using three satellite discs to do so – hands, presumably, being to Urwerk things of the past.
Approx. £57,900 (exc. taxes), urwerk.com
Roger Dubuis
Niche, for sure, but Roger Dubuis’ Knights of the Round Table collection has achieved something of a mythical standing since its inception in 2013 – appropriate, given the Arthurian legend that inspired the watch. The latest version, Ice and Fire, sees our 12 miniature, 18k rose-gold knights poised to do battle with whichever evil is about to break through the frozen lake below, where ice sheets are rendered from porcelain and freezing waters created from Murano glass.
Approx. £267,000 (exc. taxes), rogerdubuis.com
HYT
Rescued from administration by a Swiss investment firm, and briefly under the stewardship of industry titan Davide Cerrato (previously of Tudor and Montblanc, currently of Bremont), HYT is back and firing on all of its fluorescent-liquid-filled cylinders. The brand, established in 2012, has built a name for itself by using mechanical movements to push liquids through tubes in order to display the time. HYT’s latest Conical Tourbillon Titanium Blue features an inclined tourbillon at its centre, around which three spheres filled with blue liquid rotate around the dial at different speeds.
Approx. £298,000 (exc. taxes), hytwatches.com
Ressence
Another forward-facing watch brand shunning traditionally centre-mounted hands is Ressence, which, since launching in 2010, has employed gracefully rotating disks to display hours, minutes and seconds as they orbit around their dials. Typically, however, Ressence watches have arrived in conservative, monochromatic colourways, in stark contrast to their otherwise decidedly contemporary styling. No longer. The recently revealed Ressence TYPE 1° M is now available with hour, minute, second and weekday discs in red, blue, yellow and green. Ensuring that each colour pops is an uncluttered German silver dial. A (brush)stroke of genius.
Approx. £14,950 (exc. taxes), ressencewatches.com
