The complexity of a watch can often be measured by the amount of hands the watch has. A simple time only watch usually has two or three hands: hours, minutes and sometimes seconds.
A chronograph spices things up and usually adds two to three extra hands: an extra second counter, a minute counter and sometimes an hour counter.
If we want to keep adding hands, things get complicated quickly. Think of split second chronographs, perpetual calendar chronographs, leap year indicators… complicated and expensive stuff.
MeisterSinger went the other way. They scrapped all the nonsense and only use one hand. That’s right, ONE.
German Engineering
MeisterSinger is a German manufacturer of mechanical wristwatches. The company was founded in 2001, and quickly became a phenomenon. While most brands try to make their designs as complex and sophisticated as possible, MeisterSinger’s mission was to trim the design, without making it look cheap or too Bauhaus-esque.
Meistersinger started with modified ETA movements, but quickly switched to the development of in-house movements.
Since there is only one hand and no subdials, all eyes go to the dial. That’s why most MeisterSingers have colorful sunburst dials. To keep a certain sense of symmetry and balance, hours 1 until 9 start with a ‘0’, so every number on the dial has double digits. Talk about eye for detail.
The Lunascope, one of the first astronomical watches by Meistersinger that has won the German Design Award.
Prizes And Awards
Even though the company is only 20 years old and only 20 employees strong, they managed to make a strong name for themselves in a short time. Over this limited period, the brand has been able to take home 34 renowned design award. These are awards such as the Red Dot award, IF Design Award, the German Design award and many more. Most awards were won by models like the Adhaesio and the Circularis.