Bloomberg Businessweek USA - January 25, 2018

Enthusiasm for mechanical watches, much like the hand on

a timekeeping device, tends to run in cycles.

After a multiyear decline in watch exports, Switzerland,

the traditional home of the industry, saw single-digit growth

in exports over the course of 2017, indicating a recovery

for a market stung by changes in Swiss monetary policy, a

crackdown on political gifting in China, and growing enthu-

siasm for smartwatches.

Although the oldest and most famous horological houses

in the world, such as the Richemont group (which owns

Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, and Montblanc), are surging,

it’s not necessarily their best-known watches that are lead-

ing the recovery.

“Brand names just aren’t selling watches the way they

used to,” says Leon Adams, owner of Cellini Jewelers, one

of New York’s premier destinations for luxury watches.

“People are craving individuality, whether through scarcity

or through new product design.”

One unusual take on timekeeping that’s been ticking up

serious buzz is the one-handed watch, sometimes called a

single-hand watch. It can come in a variety of configura-

tions: Sometimes, a lone hand points to both the hour and

fractions of the hour on a sleek dial. In some cases, the min-

ute and hour indicators are separated, with a hand only

for the minutes and a small window telling the hour off to

one side. These timepieces offer a singular aesthetic that’s

both eye-catching and functional; it takes only one hand to

inspire a second look.

The German brand MeisterSinger has made a business of

selling reasonably priced, colorful watches such as these. Its

latest offering, the Salthora Meta X ($3,200), is a dive watch

with the company’s signature large minute hand and a bub-

bled aperture at 12 o’clock displaying “jumping hours.” (The

plate bearing the numerals changes at the strike of the hour

rather than slowly rotating.)

Meanwhile, the Octo Maserati GranSport ($12,800) from

Bulgari is a compelling new step from an Italian jewelry

house whose watches have been evolving since it brought

its movement-making in-house in 2013. The sporty num-

ber has a jumping hours indicator and a retrograde min-

utes hand that counts out the 60 minutes and then leaps

back to zero with each passing hour. Reservoir, a new brand

from Switzerland, made its debut with a range of one-hand

watches last year. Its GT-Tour (from $3,670) tells time in

almost the same way as the GranSport but on a dial that

takes its inspiration from the odometer of a race car.

Jeweler Van Cleef & Arpels has offered a one-hand watch

for a few years, but noting the uptick in the style’s popular-

ity, it will this year release a rose-gold version of its Heure

d’ici & Heure d’ailleurs ($28,300), which tracks the hour in

two different time zones with separate hour displays.

These watches tend to be inspired by other clever tools:

Loosely modeled after a marine compass, the Speake-Marin

Velsheda ($11,950) remains one of the most appealing one-

hand watches on the market. Available in seven variants

in polished titanium or red gold, featuring a lacquered or

enamel dial, the Velsheda strikes a balance between tradi-

tional craft and unconventional design.

While these watches can be lovely, be warned: Learning to

read time from a single hand takes a period of adjustment—

and often requires a concession that minutes, like spare pen-

nies, matter only in quantities of five or more. 

73

COURTESY VENDORS

Simpler Times

The latest streamlined trend: one-hand

watches. By Justin Mastine-Frost

STYLE Bloomberg Pursuits January 29, 2018

MeisterSinger Salthora

Meta X, $3,200

Van Cleef & Arpels Heure d’ici

& Heure d’ailleurs, $28,300

Speake-Marin

Velsheda, $11,950

Reservoir GT-Tour,

$3,670