“It is based on simple geometric forms – mostly the square and rectangle,” says Levin. What we can say for certain is that minimalism refers to a very specific era in the art world that started in the United States in the early 1960s. While it is understandable why this became the case, it is not entirely clear when this practice started. It is used to refer to any reduction of a thing to its essential structure,” says Todd Levin, a veteran art advisor whose collection includes pieces from independent makers such as Philippe Dufour and George Daniels. “Today minimalism in design is a modern lifestyle buzzword. This is an essential starting point, when the term often associated with a pared-back design in watchmaking has very real meaning in the art world. To understand what minimalism means in the context of watchmaking, it is helpful to start off by defining that which it absolutely does not refer to. So what then is minimalism when it comes to watch design? Is it simply marked by an absence of design elements rather than the presence of key defining characteristics? Moreover, is there a line beyond which minimal design risks going too far? That is if we agree that the line, for the sake of this discussion, is performing the very basic functions of a watch by informing or engaging visually. It probably goes without saying, as is the case with any such term that becomes a part of our everyday lexicon, it has become far removed from the 1960s’ artistic movement it shares its name with. Then there is the term ‘minimalism’ itself. will agree that clubbing these disparate design philosophies under the often-abused blanket term of ‘minimalism’ does the watchmakers a disservice. Anyone who is familiar with brands such as Nomos, Ressence, Ochs und Junior or H. The aesthetic is often dismissively referred to as minimalistic. To some, this is the road to clarity of visual language, while others in recent times have taken to this philosophy almost in opposition to the established standards in watchmaking and the premium it places on decoration and complexity. However, for almost 100 years, there has existed a small subset of watch designers and brands that have opted for a more pared-back aesthetic. A quick search of terms such as guilloché, anglage or Zaratsu polishing will prove just how closely watchmaking is linked to such adornment. The Movado Museum Classic is available at retail, priced at $595.Much has been written about the over-the-top ornamentation or complexity usually associated with traditional watchmaking. It comes on a black calfskin leather strap with a pin buckle in yellow-gold PVD-treated stainless steel, matching the case material. The crystal is sapphire the movement is quartz (the Museum Watch has always been more about iconic design than technological complexity). The black lacquered dial has gold-toned dauphine hands for the hours and minutes (a departure from the stick hands on Horwitt’s original), and only the famous gold-toned, concave dot at 12 o’clock for timekeeping orientation. The round case is a contemporary 40 mm in diameter and made of stainless steel treated with a yellow-gold PVD. Movado has created numerous successful variations on it ever since, including versions with date windows, indices, artistic dials, and even chronograph functions.įor this new model, Movado goes back to the understated simplicity of Horwitt’s original concept. Heavily influenced by the Bauhaus movement in its avant-garde design, the Movado Museum Watch got its name after the very first version was selected by New York’s Museum of Modern Art for its permanent collection in 1959. The design was adopted for a watch dial in 1947 (a watch actually produced by Vacheron Constantin, then known as Vacheron & Constantin, and Jaeger-LeCoultre, with Movado beginning series production of the model now known as the Museum Watch a year later, in 1948. The dot, according to Horwitt, was meant to symbolize the sun at high noon, an essential element in early timekeeping. American industrial designer Nathan George Horwitt (1898-1990) came up with the idea of a simple black dial with no numbers or indices, and only a single gold dot at the 12 o’clock position, in 1946. Here’s what you need to know about the Movado Museum Classic.Īficionados of horological history are aware of how Movado’s now-iconic Museum Watch and its instantly recognizable dial design came to be, but for those who are not, here’s the story in a nutshell. Movado, which made headlines last year with its release of a new series of smartwatches, returns to the iconic watch design that put the brand on the map back in the mid-20th century.
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