6 Minimalist Watches Your Co-Workers Will Covet

Today’s minimalist watches owe everything — form, style, feeling — to the Bauhaus. The German design school emerged after WWI, a reaction to the mass production of consumer goods where traditional decorative techniques such as engraving, lathing, and painting could not be effectively industrialized. The movement celebrated both form and function, with an emphasis on expressing aesthetic messages in only a few broad, simple strokes. Now, almost 100 years later, the Bauhaus still reverberates through the best modern design. You might even say it’s timeless.

A. Lange & Söhne Saxonia Thinalangeandsohne

Extremely thin on the wrist and priced as “entry-level,” the Saxonia Thin is perhaps the most direct nod to Bauhaus design from any luxury watchmaker.

Price upon request, at Royal De Versailles Jewellers 

Braun BN0021 Classic Watch

braun_classic_watch_38mm_black_xz1

Yes, Braun makes consumer electronics, but they’ve been in the watch game for ages, too. Using quartz movements and skillfully refined modern designs, the BN0021 Classic is the brand’s best expression of Bauhaus.

$225, at Rolo

Movado Edge by Yves Behar

movado

Working with modern industrial designer Yves Behar, Movado re-imagines the Museum Dial for a new generation, mix- ing modern natural curves and organic shapes into the highly mathematical and precise nature of Bauhaus design.

$550, at Hudson’s Bay

Mondaine stop2go
mondaine

This timepiece recreates the functionality of the actual Swiss Railways clocks that inspired it: the second hand stops briefly at the 12 o’clock position, before jumping forward.

$930

Uniform Wares C35

uniformwaresUniform Ware’s “sterile dial” — a watch without its watchmaker’s name on the face — is a ballsy way of highlighting design over brand.

$980 

ORIS Jazz Limited Edition

oris

The collection is full of eye-popping colours and bold faces that emphasize Bauhaus design and Jazz Age style.

$2,100 

Group Photo: Adrian Armstrong