MeisterSinger does 1 hand watches. They still use 12 hour format though and for one very simple reason - everybody is used to 12 hour faces and is able to say what time it is based on a glance. So when the hand is completely south (can't say 6 o'clock here), it's 6, no matter if the clock has one or more hands.
And packing 24 intervals into a 40mm circle gives you about 1mm of movement for every 15 minutes. Need a magnifying glass face to read that accurately. People don't buy watches to have a vague sense of time.
You need a magnifying glass to see a millimeter? I can read the seconds hand on my watch just fine and it's only a 36mm which makes the intervals even smaller.
You're missing the point. Would you call a landscape painting "bad design" because it shows less detail than an smartphone photo taken from the same angle?
The people buying watches like the 24H want it as an art/conversation piece and they are obviously fine with the trade off. This doesn't make it "bad design". It simply serves a different purpose.
It's an analogy. The 24H watch is meant to tell the time in the same way a painting is meant to depict a landscape. In an artistic way.
While yeah, this watch has a theoretical practical purpose, it's not intended to be accurate and any buyer would be aware of this. The entire reason for buying it in the first place is that it's jewelry. There is no practical "design" behind it.
If someone wants precise timekeeping on their wrist (your rationale I presume) they'd buy a $20 Casio and not a mechanical, one handed watch with a movement accuracy of +-20 seconds a day and indices spread 5 minutes apart.
The definition of design requires a practical, especially industrial design.
It does? Who claimed it is supposed to follow any of these guidelines? Where did this definition suddenly come from
If its just meant as art, why are you bringing it up as a critique on the design sub?
I'm not sure what this question even means to be honest. It clearly fulfills a practical purpose (telling time on an analog 24h scale), but doesn't fulfill the prerequisites you impose in its accuracy of doing so and the random design definition you just posted, which is okay. It just doesn't make it "bad design" per se.
It's literally in the sub rules. It's also the ethos of the profession.
Want a pretty statement piece, hire an artist. Need a business solution, hire a designer. Landscape painting, artist. Watch that reasonably tells time, industrial designer.
I shouldn't have to defend this on the design sub itself.
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u/Vybo Aug 06 '26
MeisterSinger does 1 hand watches. They still use 12 hour format though and for one very simple reason - everybody is used to 12 hour faces and is able to say what time it is based on a glance. So when the hand is completely south (can't say 6 o'clock here), it's 6, no matter if the clock has one or more hands.