Occasionally a watch comes along that co-opts the mechanics or look from an adjacent world and totally changes the design landscape. Klokers has done such a thing with a slide-rule inspired timepiece, the Klok-01 Minimal Watch.
The Klok-01 Minimal Watch is an incredibly unique layout. This medium-width watch offers just timekeeping — no bells or whistles. However, it delivers the hours, minutes, and seconds in a way that you must see to appreciate. Some may find it hard to read. Others may rise to the challenge. Let’s take a closer look and see if this mathematically-inspired wristwatch adds up to your needs.
Klok-01 Watch: Minimal Meets Disc
Disc watches aren’t necessarily a new concept, we’ve seen plenty of timepieces utilizing the rotating disks that seem to float inside the watch face, intermixed with each other. The interplay between the disks is where the magic lies — at any given moment, their organization can appear unique.
A great watch designer using this principle has to be certain that no matter where the interlocking rings sit throughout a 24-hour period, the design is clean, pleasing to the eye, and of course, understandable.
Part Technical
On the Klok-01 the outermost ring of the face indicates the current hour on a 12-hour timescale. Three hash marks indicate 15-minute periods between the hours. This design is convenient: even if you don’t need the exact time, a quick glance at this ring will give you a ballpark idea of where you are within the hour. Hold your gaze a moment longer, and the minute hand appears in stark contrast.
One concentric ring further in, the minutes tick away. Every fifth minute, you encounter a numeral denominating the time. A medial hashmark indicates the precise minute. Much like the hour ring, the playful contrast between the minute numerals and hash marks makes for quick work of orienting yourself in time without having to study too long. But if you have that extra moment, the innermost wheel denoting the seconds comes into view.
Drilling down all the way to the second hand, you quickly notice that Klokers has gone so far as to include half-second marks throughout this ring. While it seems cool, you have to remember that this watch’s movement mechanism is quartz, so the second hand is not in continuous motion, only ticking to the next stop every second.
Part Playful
It takes a minute for your brain to latch onto this upside-down reality, but the disks in the interior of the Klok-01 rotate backward. It seems weird, but it makes a lot of sense when you think about it. Imagine a watch on your wrist with traditional hour and minute hands. Instead of those hands moving to indicate the time, the dial below them rotates to show the time of day. Obviously, the disk has to turn counterclockwise to meet the hands as the day wears on. So too do all of the interior disks of the KLOK-01, a rather cheeky little feature that helps this unique timepiece stand out beyond the rest of the normal watch types.
Totally Unique
Great minimalist watches typically do not have a design inspired by auto racing, aeronautics, or sports. Their sleek design and scant features attract suitors who know that one must remove and not add adornments to pursue a minimal aesthetic and high function.
As is the norm with watches the timepiece and strap are interchangeable. What’s unique about the Klok-01 in this regard is the watch itself slides on and off the strap via a little docking station. This tiny piece of the hardware remains on the strap full time, but the watch face slides off with the click of a button. The final effect resembles an old-timey pocket watch, only smaller.
Klok-01 Watch Recap
At just 44 millimeters in width, this minimalist watch is in the midrange for size, packs a lot of character, and surprises with a reasonable price point of $645 MSRP. Just make sure you know how to use a real slide rule. In case someone presents you with the challenge, you can’t have the watch inspired by math’s past processor without knowing how to use one. Just don’t ask us; we don’t know either.
