Without "face": watches without numerals, hands, and even dials

The many-sided watch world has become the widest field of activity for hundreds and thousands of talented designers, who tend to the originality and uniqueness and are constantly in search of new ideas and solutions that make a small "area" of the dial in a whole "canvas", which reflects worldview and skills of its creator, as well as tastes and preferences of the chronometer’s owner.
Starting from simple elegant and restrained classic design to luxurious "picturesque" dials and unusual avant-garde solutions, every dial tells a story of unique style creation and work, done over the chronograph. Dial is like a "face" of the chronometer, which attracts us, first of all, giving a completed appearance to our image.
An imposing and leisurely 19th century was reflected in watchmaking by luxury and beauty of design. Dials became canvas for leisurely hands of the masters, turning them into works of art. However, the industrial 20th century brought hurry and need for functionality and practicality, surrounding people, into life, and watch industry was no exception. That need started gradually replacing carefulness and beauty of design, its "detailedness", which became like redundant ...
The following 21st century was an era of speed and mixing of cultures. Different styles and artistic trends were revealed in new ways, in various combinations. In the new millennium the artistic experience, gained by previous generations, began to form a special relationship to different types of art. That revealed in literature, architecture, fashion, as well as in horlogerie of new millennium. It became more difficult to invent new things, and the modern generation as if had to sort out the left cultural "heritage" just to present it in a new way, or to mix various components of eras and cultures in other way. The artistic experience of previous eras, in the light of modern technology, as if deprived us of comfort and tranquility, making constantly rush and keep pace with more and more, more and more, became a kind of fair, where the modern designers take what they like. Such attitude towards life has formed a special view of many crafts. The main priority was functionality, practicality and restraint. The idea of simplification was more often brought to forefront in architecture, interior design, fashion and other applied arts, and even in literature: the details became unnecessary.
Everything began from postmodern art of geometric abstractiveness, which formed in a separate art trend - minimalism - one of the most prominent and controversial art tendencies of the second half of XX century.
The symbol of minimalism is the painting by Kazimir Malevich "Black Square", a work, regarded in the formal respect as a trace of the three-dimensional structure. The disputes of critics and fans of contemporary art are still going on. However, the fact is that the year of 1915 was a turning point: a new trend in art appeared, the basic concept of which was the harmonization of the simplest elements.
Minimalism as an art trend appeared in New York in the 60s. It is usually considered as a reaction to the art forms of abstract expressionism. Basically, minimalist art is geometric forms, cleaned from metaphors and symbols. The famous artists-minimalists are Sol Le Witt, Donald Judd, Carl Andre, Robert Morris, Dan Flavin and Frank Stella. Minimalism is characterized by laconic means of expression, accuracy, simplicity and clarity of composition.
This trend rejects the classical techniques of art and traditional materials. The minimalists use both natural and industrial materials mainly of neutral colors (gray, black), simple geometric shapes and small sizes.

Minimalism has penetrated into various spheres of human activity: design and fashion, architecture and even literature. Minimalism in architecture is expressed in desire for an extreme simplification of the composition, neglecting the decor in order to achieve ideal proportions and color combinations in main forms.
Minimalism, leaked to the interior design, is modeling of space using only the necessary items. The most important thing when planning a minimalistic space is quiet and diffused light that creates the visual effect of luminescent walls and ceilings. The main thing in a minimalistic interior is a much lighted space.
One of the most popular and common trends in interior minimalism is the Japanese minimalism. Who better than the Japanese know a lot about restrained and austere beauty!
The Japanese minimalistic design is characterized by the use of partitions-walls, wooden or fabric shutters, straw mats and concise accessories (figurines, flower arrangements, sculptures). The function of space zoning can be performed by semitransparent fabrics, glasses of sliding doors, lights in the walls or on the floor.
Laconism of such interior reminds of graphics and requires ability to dispense with sparse resources of black and white palette, or simply contrasting colors, which will highlight each line.
Minimalism in fashion revealed under the slogan "nothing excessive": the first time it appeared on the catwalks of the world thanks to the British, Scandinavian and Belgian designers.
The genre of minimalism is strict and requires impeccable sense of style and measure; it does not forgive mistakes and bustle, disposes to calm and focus. Design of chronometer, as practice shows, requires great imagination and hard work. Scattering of diamonds or enamel painting, classical restraint or bold skeletonized dial - the modern watch market offers a lot of design decisions suited to every fancy, as they say. However, the modern desire for minimum decoration penetrated even into horology. Today many watch companies began to experiment with this trend, each presenting minimalism in watchmaking in its own way.
Once the idea of a dial with only one hand seemed incredible and even insane. Today, however, "depriving" a watch of hands and numerals becomes fashionable and original, and some designers today deprive chronometers of even the dial!

“Eye of the Storm” from Chinese designer Yiran Qian

In 2010, designer Yiran Qian surprised all fans of unusual and original items. He suggested to deprive watches of dials at all, and being a man of action, presented a model of amazing chronograph with no dial!
The idea of Yiran is designed in the concept called “Eye of the Storm”. According to the designer, the name of the concept appeared not by chance. It turns out the "eye of the storm" is a meteorological name. According to meteorological experts, this term refers to a quiet area of low pressure in the heart of a tropical cyclone. This sort of oasis in the heart of the storm became the inspiration of the designer, who believed that an empty dial looked the same and reminded of an "eye of the storm."
Let’s put romance aside for a while and think about the time indication. The creators of “Eye of the Storm” confirm that it is quite simple. The empty hole in the center of the watch instead of dial is surrounded by a thin ring of color display, which has two luminescent spots, symbolizing the minute and hour hands. They are showing the time indeed.
One of the main advantages of this concept is considered to be anti-allerginicity, according to the creators of “Eye of the Storm”: allergy mainly arises from contact of metal and leather, and this watch does not have this problem a priori. According to the designer, nothing is technically impossible in the concept, and it is possible that some manufacturer will pay attention to an ingenious product “Eye of the Storm”.

“Diesel DZ9044” from Diesel

The original idea of dial absence is noteworthy by the fact that these watches attract attention and look originally at the wrist. However, even the sophisticated designers find ways for making various designs in the idea of dial absence, which seems to have nothing to add: the model “Diesel DZ9044” is an example.
It would seem that the idea itself is original and unique, an "empty space" instead of the dial. However, the Italian company “Diesel”, founded in 1978 by Renzo Rosso, famous around the world by production of clothes, various accessories and original watches, showed originality and uniqueness even in this limited, in terms of variation, design.
The products creating philosophy of that company says: "We do not sell clothes and accessories, we sell a lifestyle". The range of watches of the company includes original and vibrant analog electronic wrist watches, equipped with complex details, asymmetrical cases, and even LCD displays. The watches from Diesel are for people, who do not stand still, are constantly in search.
In May of 2009, the company made a surprise for the fans of their products and not only for them. Diesel surprised the world with its original approach to the design of watches: after issue the watch “Diesel DZ9044” immediately took a worthy place in the category of original and amazing timepieces.
The dial of “Diesel DZ9044” is absolutely deprived of any "signs of life" at first glance: instead, the designers installed a gray smooth steel plate that gives the watch a "hard" image. But in fact, the model “Diesel DZ9044” does have a dial: and not only one, but four! The skillful designers simply placed them on the sides of the case. This model is supposed to show the time in four different time zones. True, it is quite uncomfortable to track the time on the watch “Diesel DZ9044”, but the creators of the watch were guided more by the idea that a modern chronometer was sooner an accessory than a practical tool for tracking the time.
The case diameter of Diesel DZ9044 - 38 mm, the water resistance of the model - 100 meters.

“Aurora” from Jihun Yeom

The watch “Aurora”, deprived of the dial by the designer's idea, from a "faceless" family, harmoniously continues our list of non-dial watches.
In 2010, designer Jihun Yeom introduced his concept “Aurora” to the world: a watch with no hands no dials. The basis for the creation of this non-standard watch was the vision of the designer. Usual time indexes are a bit archaic for him, and he offers all fans of modern design a high-tech modernized and original decision, the author of which he became.
Jihun removed traditional hands, replacing them with two thin laser beams, slowly "traveling" through the space of non-existent dial. These original "hands" are usually invisible and activated only when you touch the empty space of the dial. This decision of literally disappearing and appearing laser hands at the wave of a finger, except an aesthetic function, is also rational: the laser module consumes a lot of energy, which the producers decided to save.

LED watch from Japanese designer Hironao Tsuboi

An original approach to usual things always differed the Japanese people from other nationalities. Hironao Tsuboi from Japan proved that once again in 2009, introducing a striking concept of invisible watches.
In fact, there’s nothing unusual in the product created by Hironao. It looks like a usual silver metal bracelet on wrist. However, an ordinary bracelet at first glance is a completely new and unusual angle, at which the designer looked at the design of the modern chronograph.
The simple metal bracelet of silver color is not equipped with either conventional or electronic dial. However, it still indicates the time. The point is that Tsuboi placed a miniature chip that controls the display of time and a few LEDs directly into the bracelet. This unusual view of the product, which seems to have exhausted all its possibilities of design during its existence, has become a new word in modern watchmaking. As the creator of the concept notes, the bracelet will be made exclusively of silver, not stainless steel. You can buy the watch in specialized stores.

Zero Gravity from German artist Robert Dabi

The watch “Zero Gravity” is a concept, designed by German artist and designer Robert Dabi from Nuremberg. Robert is a "media designer for digital and print media, specializing in the design". As Robert himself says, he is trying to find modern art in new forms and technologies.
While creating the concept, the designer of Zero Gravity decided to minimize the functional aspect of the watch, focusing only on the exterior design. The watch does not have any hands, or numerals. Two disks are used to determine the time: one for minutes and the other for hours respectively. The hands represent lines of light, moving on the disks. The designer presented different color variations of his original concept. As the creator of watch has noted, this is a pure minimalism, driven to perfection.
The title “Zero” isn’t chosen by chance: the watch has no numerals, no hands, no buttons. The dial is decorated with two disks: external - minute and internal - hour, on which the light lines move, respectively indicating the minutes and hours, and it is very easy to determine the time by them.
The minimalism of the model is expressed not only in the design of the dial, but also in the overall design of the chronometer. So, instead of providing the watch with a strap, the designer preferred to "stretch" the case of Zero around the wrist.
Of course, such design is far from being new, but it’s quite original and fresh in Robert’s performance, as the light strips, acting as hands, create an unusual sense of cosmic serenity.

“Elusive” from internee of company “Dassault Sytemes” David Blank

The 21st century as if became an era of constant lack of time. The manufacturers and advertising professionals are constantly emphasizing this fact. And, of course, this fact is directly linked with the sphere of watchmaking: it is chronometers on our wrists that constantly "spur" us up in ceaseless race for the time. This circumstance gradually finds its expression in the design of modern watches: the maximum of minimum – the watch “Elusive”, created by designer David Blank, can be characterized just in this way. Paying tribute to the penetration of minimalism in all areas of design, David also created a watch without any numeral or other identifying marks. There’s no limit of minimum - he thought, and created a watch without hands and numerals, and with no dial at all.
As the creator of an unusual concept, a young designer, David Blank, an internee of the company “Dassault Sytemes”, has noticed, his unusual watch is a high-tech ode to the modern minimalism. According to the designer, the hands and numerals, and the dial itself are excessive things, rudiments, which the watches of the future do not need.
However, despite his statement, Elusive still has numerals: they appear right on your hand as soon as you press the button that does not exist. The function of "non-existent button" is performed by sensors inside the ring. For the numerals appear on your skin you just need to "press" the non-existent dial by one finger: then the built-in sensor will display the time right on your skin. The same "push" by only two fingers will show already the date on your skin. Displaying the time, the watch will automatically go into Standby mode: the creators of the concept provided batteries saving. And while you're enjoying your "invisible" watch, others will look closely at your wrist, breaking their heads what a bright and unusual accessory found its place there. The color design of “Elusive”, however, isn’t as "invisible", as the dial. The watch straps are made in various colors: bright shades of yellow, pink, purple and lavender, rich blue, red and green, of course, will cheer up and become a perfect complement to its owner’s dress.
As the creator of the original concept defined his approach to creation of “Elusive”, if there are Laser keyboards, why not to create a laser watch: the future is likely to be for them...

Watches “Ora Lattea”, “Ora Ameba”, “Ora Vago” and “Ora Unica” from Italian designer Denis Guidone

As one of the best embodiment of minimalistic watch design, a small collection of Italian designer Denis Guidone, performed in the best traditions of minimalism, can be noted: no details, and classic black. Dennis is known in the watch world as the author of wonderful and original projects that are different from current trends and by expressive individuality, expressing the worldview of their author. The most famous projects are the watches “Sometimes watch” and “Wherever watch”, which, apart from the original minimalistic design, are also functional and can be useful to people, who often have to move. In such circumstances, it is often necessary to know what time it is in your native city and, of course, keep track of time in the place of residence. In order to simplify the constant summing up or subtracting the difference in time, Dennis has created a wristwatch, equipped with an additional hand that made it possible to easily track the time in second time zone. The project, receiving a sonorous and "speaking" name “Wherever Watch”, became a challenge to solid companies, specializing in the production of complicated watches with display of second time zone, by its simplicity, comfort in use and minimum of parts, often just making watches “heavier”, to give solidity. The solution of the young designer differed by optimality and ease of use that undoubtedly became one of the reasons for the project success: only one additional hand decided all questions, arising from the time tracking in two time zones.
The project “Sometimes Watch” became also known for its hands: that time the original designer "set out" the hands of his watch in such a way that in their constant motion they first formed a polygonal shape, then gradually joined into one line. An unusual concept again won sympathy and warm reaction. As the watch “Sometimes Watch”, in fact, is deprived of the dial: on the dark background white stripes are moving, in the process of their movement forming strange broken shapes, and sometimes perfectly straight line that divides the dial into two parts.
However, the young designer continued to get inspired by the idea of creating a watch, deprived of hands and numerals at all, and in 2008, Dennis presented four concepts at once without any numerals and with original hands and "non-hands" at the same time. The collection consists of four models: Ora Lattea, Ora Ameba, Ora Vago and Ora Unica. The young Italian, already known to fans of modern design as the creator of amazing concepts, experimented again with white and black colors. His works were exhibited at the Design Week in Milan, where he received the most flattering praise.
The watch “Ora Lattea” is equipped with moving dots, instead of hands, which give a kind of cosmic image to the watch. Instead of hands, the model “Ora Ameba” is equipped with only their tips, which are considered by the designer to be more than sufficient to display the time. The hands of “Ora Vago” resemble more the hands of a compass, than a chronometer. The watch “Ora Unica” caused a lot of noise by its appearance. The name of the watch literally means "one hour", and the model has received the award “Adamo Eva”. The specific feature of Ora Unica is the dial design: the minute and hour hands represent a firm line, "twisted" in an original "ball", but the pattern on the dial, not clear at first glance, in fact, is quite simple and plain: the main thing is that the owner was able to figure that out. All watches of this unusual collection are made in black, which, except for a minimalistic accent, is also extremely practical: the watch might match well clothes of any style. The watches by Denis are suitable for both men and women.

Watch “Koko Muo” from Spanish designer Loyto Esineiden

The trend of manufacturing watches with unusual dials is in constant development, as if the modern designers are involved in a secret competition to create the most original and unusual chronometer.
For example, a designer from Spain, Loyto Esineiden, drew the attention of fans of original timepieces and all sorts of gadgets to her invention: the watch “Koko Muo”, more like a speedometer, rather than a traditional watch. Obviously, she hasn’t done without gravity to minimalism while creating this chronometer: strictness and laconism of performance are obvious.
The concept gained great popularity after it was presented on the portal “Yanko Design” for the first time.
The watch style – emphatic half-and-half. On the dial, instead of hands, Loyto installed "arcs" - two semi-circles: big and small, one of which indicates hours, and the second one - minutes. On the edge of each semicircle the numerals-indexes are applied, which do not allow you to get confused in the current time. As it turned out, ladies do not only love beautiful and stylish accessories, but they are able to create unusual and unique products by themselves: the watch “Koko Muo” has taken place precisely in this category.
In addition to the original indication of time, this watch is not less original in indication of day time: at day-time the scale, showing hours, is gradually getting "painted" in white, and at night, respectively, in black.
It’s interesting that this watch is much more complicated in terms of design, than the usual traditional chronometers: two-color circles of different diameters are to be placed in the case, so that one half was reflected in the window of the dial, while the second would be hidden underneath.
This design might seem rather attractive to men, who like speed and unusual accessories, created by the original grounds. Of course, the watch “Koko Muo” is unlikely to suit meticulous and punctual individuals, however, it will undoubtedly become one of the most unusual and fashion accessories in your wardrobe. The case and strap are made in the classic combination of black and silver colors.

Binary watches without hours and hands – for those, who like counting

In the 21st century high technologies have become an integral part of our lives: at work and at home, everywhere we are surrounded by high-tech products that facilitate our lives and perform a variety of functions. High-tech has penetrated even into the sphere of horlogerie: today you can find watches, made on scientific grounds, more and more often. That affected both the external design of chronometers and the movements, made with the latest science and technology.
The binary watches are a new phenomenon and very characteristic for the 21st century, when people are constantly dealing with numbers. However, before we talk about watches, let’s recall the basis of numbers coding in order to better understand the principle of binary watches.
Thus, to use numerals, first of all, we need a system of numbering. There were several such systems during the existence of mankind. So, in Babylon one of the most popular systems of numeration was a sexagesimal system, the echoes of which still exist in modern mathematics. Thus, the division of an hour into 60 minutes and a circle into 360 degrees came from that system. Many numbering systems and records of numbers competed with each other until the so-called "computer age", which gave the special role only to the ten, came, and as a consequence, the decimal number system became the most popular coding system, which came from India in the 6th century.
The binary numeral system, which is used to determine the time by binary watches, is invented by philosophers and mathematicians of 18-19 centuries, long before the appearance of high technology and computers. As the famous and outstanding mathematician Leibniz said, "Computation with dyads is essential for science and generates new discoveries ..."
It turns out that the reduction of numbers to primary basics, which are 0 and 1, a wonderful order appears everywhere. And why do we need watches, if not to establish order in time?
The familiar sound of "tick-tock" is replaced by most of the modern watches with silent operation. The watchmaking, as well as other areas of the modern industry, is constantly developing: new time sets new conditions and new needs.
A binary watch can be called the latest word in contemporary watchmaking. We can say that the binary watch is an accessory that keeps step with the times, even passes a bit ahead of it. The difference of this incredibly original accessory is the binary system, required for reading the time. Of course, for those, who are not friends with mathematics, this watch is unlikely to suit. But, for example, the computer programmers or simply people, who are crazy about all kinds of high-tech "stuff", will surely be delighted by such watches.
What is a binary watch, and how does it differ from our traditional notion of a simple chronometer? First of all, the name "binary" literally means "double". The dials of binary watches are provided with light diodes (LED technology) for the time indication. Various models of watches are distinguished from each other by their location, shape and size, but the principle is the same: a part of LED displays hours, another part - minutes.
For example, the dial of a model with a “speaking” name “Virus”, is a unique assemblage of "biological bacteria": LEDs are made precisely in the form of biological cells. On a rectangular dial there are 27 of these "bacteria" of red, green and yellow colors. The principle of the watch is simple enough: two buttons, located on the right side of the case, are designed to turn on the watch: the top button turns the feature of animated viewing of the time, the lower - the function of instant displaying of the time. The button of animated viewing makes "bacteria" on the dial move randomly, then the LEDs are slowly stopped, and only then they show the time.
The buttons of instant display of the time "turn on" LEDs: red denotes the number of hours, yellow - the number of minutes, divisible by five, and green LEDs indicate single minutes from one to four. The watch “Virus” displays the time only in the 12-hour format. The design of this binary watch is original and looks great on the wrist, no matter if the watch is on or off.
Well, the binary watches can be called one of the last crazes of the watch industry, the design of which has its roots in an era, when computer technology just started developing, and the computer was a special on-off device for lamp indicators. Basically, the binary watches are supplied with manuals, eliminating the problem of using these unusual timepieces.

***
Most of the watches of minimalistic style still represent concepts, and they are included into mass production. Today, however, the trend of increasing demand for unusual accessories is getting more and more popular. Almost all the authors of such mechanisms are sure that the future of watchmaking belongs to minimalistic watches…
And we have just introduced you the original watches, made on the grounds the art movement, become very popular recently, - the minimalism, which "deprived" watches of numerals, hands, and even dials ...