The 0Hundred watch is designed by Car industry veterans Nicholas DiLoreto and Kort Neumann. It’s a concept watch and judging by the date wheel on the watch, this is definately would need a custom mechanical movement. There is no information available whether they intend to develop this into a finished product.

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Knot Design LLC (via Mocoloco)

I’m not a very big fan of Rado but I do like this new model called the r5.5 by Jasper Morrison. It was first launched during the vienna design week in austria, and will be gradually introduced to the world market soon.

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Designboom: Rado r5.5 watch by Jasper Morrison

Bell & Ross new limited edition timepiece creates a circular radar display using three discs with a small protruding hand as rotating hands thus mimicing the look of a radar. Limited to 500 pieces.

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Bell & Ross (via Kanye)

A watch is not only used by a wearer to tell time but to tell others as well. Design studio Maezm’s new concept watch makes that practice of sharing even more convenient by changing the placement of the watch display by 90 degrees so you can share more easily. You can achieve the same result with the ‘Skew’ by Ross Mcbride (link)

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Maezm (via Designboom)

Burberry has launched a limited edition set for men and women this fall. The ladies watch is limited to 50 units and will retail at 800 USD, whereas, the men’s is limited to 60 units and will be sold at 1265 USD. I like both of them, though i think they should’ve made them part of their permanent collection.

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Burberry (via Trend Hunter)

Now imagine if you’re automotive designers Andy Shaw and Robert Silkstone and you decided to develop your own range of watches? And why not? Watch brands have for decades associated themselves with cars and if they could do it,so could you. And even better, you would go one step further, you would create these watches using your ‘automotive engineering methods’ and intensive manufacturing techniques like spark erosion and wire-EDM machining combined with laser engraving to create something … ordinary? I doubt you would, but their two debut models, Britannic and Vanguard-Precision don’t look too impressive especially since they are priced at $8000 USD.

Wisely, the designers have limited their collection to an edition of 15 units. No idea if it is a mechanical or a quartz.

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Born Rich: Horology gets an automative touch

This has already made the rounds on the blogs so I’m a little late to this, but Marc Ecko/Timex may be doing a Star Wars collaboration for the 2009 Holiday season. Since it’s mid October, I would’ve imagined it would be out now.

On a side note: I’ve been following on Timex’s initiative to go high-end and I noticed on one of the posts regarding the Star Wars collaboration that Stephen Scholz was now the Global Brand Director for Timex. I remember him as the Brand Manager for Ecko watches at Callanen back in 2005 before Timex purchased the company (Callanen and not Marc Ecko). This is significant because it shows how much of an influence Callanen’s culture of branding is having at Timex.

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Marc Ecko Blog

Sol by Shin Azumi

Untrod is a mysterious project (Mysterious because I couldn’t find a link for it anywhere) that collaborates with international designers on various project themes. Coincidently the first theme is about watches.

For the project, designers were asked to investigate the possibility of bringing new meanings to the conventional form of a watch. Below are some of the design concepts and I hope to dig up all of them:

The Sol, pictured above, is a solar powered watch that features the cell technology on the face instead of disguising it. (I’ve done a similar design myself minus the solar technology part)

Ororon by Fumie Shibata

The Ororon does a simple improvement. The strap on this watch fastens on the case itself. Unfortunately, they didn’t work around the problem of adjusting it for different wrists thus rendering it obsolete commercially.

Analarm By Industrial Facility

I like the name of this one – It’s called the Analarm and it’s by industrial facility (They previous did a watch for Seiko Instruments – See link). The watch is inspired by the alarm clock with the exception that the sound is replaced by a vibrator that indicates when the alarm is activated. I like how it sets the alarm – You have to keep the alarm button pressed while moving the hands to the desired time and then release the button. Simple.

Skew by Ross Mcbride

Madokadoke by Ross Mcbride

Duo by Ross Mcbride

The last three are all done by Ross Mcbride who incidently runs his own little wristwatch brand called ‘Normal’. The first one is called the Skew. It allows the wearer to adjust the case so it can be adjusted to your ideal viewing angle.

The second one is the most impressive. It’s called the Madokadoke and it is a bracelet that camouflages the buttons and the presence of the watch except when the digits appear to tell you the time. This concept has been done before by Hiranao Tsuboi but it was definately not as sexy in it’s execution.

Finally, the last one is called the Duo. It’s a dual time watch where the crown is concealed under a silicon flap.

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Designboom: untrod: watch designs

Pardon the title of this entry, it’s a reference to a hilarious internet meme. Anyway, Recession has been good for Timex. Marc Ecko, having incurred $170 million in debt, moved out of his $9 million office and sold his brand’s wristwatch license to Timex’s subsidiary, Callanen International.

This move was further encouraged by Callanen’s previous experience with Guess where Fossil tried to snatch the license away from them.

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Ecko puts his HQ on market

When I was a kid, there used to be a popular desk clock where the digits would appear on a see-through screen. Nooka brings back that technology for it’s latest Zaz model.

The luxury model uses the ZENV movement which means the first two bars indicate the hours, the third one represents the minutes. The RRP is 395 USD.

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Nooka Zaz

The UR-CC! is the first mechanical wristwatch to mimic the digital linear display. The linear time is displayed by two large cylinders. One for jumping hours and the other, a retrograde cylinder for the minutes. The seconds are also displayed by a rotating disk on the dial. The UR-CC1 took more than three years of R&D.

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Urwerk UR-CC1

The Pulsograph (Video Presentation)

Spent a truckload on your mechanical wristwatch and have a burning desire to display it the way it deserves? Design firm Dietlin has something for you – It’s called the Pulsograph and it not only displays your watch but it enhances the mechanical sound of the watch for your aural pleasure (see video). The Pulsograph is currently a prototype.

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Dietlin

dz4160

dz5172

You’ve to give it to Diesel for being fresh with such consistency. This year, they made me do a double take when i first spotted the dz4160 shown above. At first I thought it was photoshopped. Renzo Russo, the man behind Diesel calls this – his company’s ability to innovate in stagnant fashion markets as the ‘Diesel treatment’.

In a recent book, Wilbert Das, Diesel’s creative director, explained their approach further:

“We’ve always been fascinated by things that are kitsch, colourful, decorative. Sometimes we refer to it as “retro-futuristic”, but that doesn’t quite capture it. We like to clash styles, piling references on top of one another. We get out of our way to challenge definitions of good taste. We’re not interested in fashion – we prefer to create things that are entirely our own. Diesel is anti-fashion fashion.

dz5174

dz9042

dz1243

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Diesel Time Frames

Christian Audigier’s special edition

Jovial’s new baby

Both these brands are not interested in ripping each other off. Both these brands got the same watch, so what’s going on?

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Christian Audigier

Jovial

There was a time when Rolex would write down the name of the retailer on the face of the wristwatch and there was a time when Cartier used to sell Rolexes in their stores. Put two and two together and you’ve got a stack of antique Rolexes out there with the Cartier signature like this 1967 Double Red Sea Dweller up for auction that has a pre-sale estimate of between $25,000 to $45,000. Credit: Hodinkee for spotting this.

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Antiquorum

The Post-it watch only receives email and has an acid-etched glass on top which allows the user to scribble notes on the surface. This is the first wristwatch to combine an analog interface (pen/pencil) with a digital one.

Designed by Industrial Facility for Seiko and selected for the 1999 Industrial Design Yearbook. I think this was always meant to be a prototype.

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Industrial Facility

Imagine a clock that you can smash all you want and it won’t break. Keep Imagining because that clock doesn’t exist. However, Matthias Lange here, has come up with a prototype called ‘Smash’ that not only takes a beating but encourages you to by making it part of its interface. You have to punch it to stop it ringing.

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Matthias Lange

Thorunn Arnadottir’s bead clock is a necklace where each bead represents 5 minutes. The orange and red beads represent hours. As the wheel on which it rests, turns, one bead falls off thus counting the passing of time.

To tell the time, one has to count the beads and to help with that, Thorunn has a silver bead for midnight and a golden one for noon.

According to Thorunn, his prototype’s goal was to create a more ‘emotional’ perception of time and to take it further, you could express your freedom from time by removing the beads from the wheel, then in a symbolic gesture of defiance, he recommends you wear the necklace as a statement that you are in control of your minutes.

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Thorunn Design

In a world of constant reflection on the past and constant worry about what tomorrow may bring, the main goal of the Now is the Time wristwatch is to inspire timekeepers to live in the only moment that matters – right now. Void of numbers, the Now is the Time wristwatch is instead filled with a uniquely inspirational message. In place of the missing digits, the words “Now is the Time” are laid out in typical clocklike fashion.

“This is more than a wristwatch,” stated Van Strickland, creator of the Now is the Time wristwatch. “It’s a gateway to dream realization.”

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PRWeb: Inspirational Wristwatch Helps Victims Overcome Adversity