24 Creative Watches That Rethink How We Tell the Time

Phones tell the time perfectly, yet people still buy watches, and many of the most interesting ones are not about accuracy at all. Some are tiny mechanical theatres, others are design experiments that ask whether a watch needs numbers, hands or even a face. This collection gathers 24 of the most inventive designs shared online around 2014, from a half-million-dollar Swiss automaton to a watch you read with your fingertips.

They fall into a few groups. Luxury houses use watches as a canvas for miniature painting, sculpture and astronomy. Independent designers play with new ways of showing hours and minutes, using discs, dots, colours or gaps. Some are pure jokes. And one, the Bradley, changed how blind and sighted people alike can tell the time. For each watch you will find who made it, how it shows the time and what makes it unusual. Several were limited editions or design concepts, so availability has changed since they first appeared; a few of the shop links below still point to listings for those that were sold.

Mechanical works of art

Midnight Planétarium by Van Cleef & Arpels

Presented in 2014, this watch puts a working model of the solar system on the wrist. Six planets, carved from hard stones such as turquoise for Earth and red jasper for Mars, orbit a pink-gold sun at their real speeds: Mercury in 88 days, Earth in a year and Saturn in about 29 years. A shooting star marks the hours, and the owner can set a "lucky day" when Earth passes under a star engraved on the crystal. The 396-part movement includes a module developed with the Dutch astronomical watchmaker Christiaan van der Klaauw. Designed by Van Cleef & Arpels.

Excalibur Knights of the Round Table by Roger Dubuis

Instead of hour markers, twelve tiny knights in pink gold stand around the dial, which is painted to look like King Arthur's Round Table. Each figure is sculpted in remarkable detail, with swords, helmets and armour, and the table's green and white segments double as the hour track. It was made in small numbers for the brand's boutiques. Designed by Roger Dubuis.

The Bird Repeater by Jaquet Droz

This Bird Repeater Watch Is Worth Half A Million Dollars

Press a button and the dial comes to life: one blue tit feeds a chick, the other spreads its wings, an egg hatches and a waterfall flows behind them, modelled on the Saut du Doubs falls in the Swiss Jura. At the same time a minute repeater chimes the hours, quarters and minutes on a gong. The 508-part movement took two years to develop, and the first editions cost around $472,500 to $493,500, which is where the "half a million dollars" headline comes from. Jaquet Droz takes its name from Pierre Jaquet-Droz, an 18th-century maker of famous automata. Designed by Jaquet Droz.

Poetic Wish by Van Cleef & Arpels

Another piece from the house's "Poetic Complications", this dial shows a night scene in Paris: a man standing on a tower across from a woman on the Eiffel Tower, under an enamelled sky with a crescent moon. A scale across the middle shows the minutes. The second photo shows an artisan painting a dial by hand with a fine brush, work that can take many hours per piece. Designed by Van Cleef & Arpels.

Dragon Gate Legend by Cornelius & Cie

The deeply carved dial shows a dragon above a leaping carp. It illustrates an old Chinese legend in which a carp that manages to leap the waterfall at the Dragon Gate is transformed into a dragon, a traditional symbol of perseverance and success. The sculpted relief makes the dial look almost like a miniature bronze. Designed by Cornelius & Cie.

Angular Momentum handmade timepieces

These watches come from a small independent workshop known for one-off dials. The examples here show a bird in flight on a deep red background and grey dials sculpted with flowers and patterns that catch the light. Because each dial is made by hand, no two are quite the same. Made by Angular Momentum.

Skull watches by Fiona Krüger

Designer Fiona Krüger, who works in Switzerland, shaped the whole case as a skull and turned the movement into its features: openwork wheels form the eyes and nose, and the bridges become teeth. The collection draws on the decorated skulls of Mexico's Day of the Dead, a festive reminder of mortality rather than a gloomy one. Versions came in silver tones and in black. Designed by Fiona Krüger.

New ways to read the time

Eye of a Storm by Yiran Qian

This design concept removes the dial completely. The case is an open ring, so you see your own wrist through the middle, and two small coloured markers move around the rim to show hours and minutes. It is a playful answer to the question of how little a watch needs. Designed by Yiran Qian.

ZIIIRO Mercury

Two translucent printed discs turn on top of each other, and the time is read from where their colour gradients begin, like two comets chasing round the dial. It takes a minute to learn, and the effect changes with every hour. Shown in purple and in turquoise; the original listing is here.

Ora Unica by Denis Guidone

The name means "one hour" in Italian. Instead of two separate hands, the watch has a single continuous loop of metal; one end shows the hours and the other the minutes, so the line changes shape all day. It became one of the best-known minimalist watches of its time. Designed by Denis Guidone.

Ora Lattea by Denis Guidone

A sister design to the Ora Unica, its name means "Milky Way". There are no hands at all: dots of different sizes travel across a white dial like planets, and their positions give the time. It suits someone who wants a watch that looks like a small piece of graphic art. It was sold here.

Free Time by Laurinda Spear

The dial is a set of concentric broken circles, a little like a maze, and the gaps move as time passes. American architect and designer Laurinda Spear created it for Projects Watches, a brand that invites architects and artists to design dials. It was listed here.

Nadir by Damian Barton

A dark dial with a small numbered ring in the middle and long hands that sweep from the edge, so the numbers sit where you would expect the centre post to be. It is another Projects Watches design, clean enough to wear every day. Available here.

Digital Destruction by Ross McBride

A classic analogue dial looks as if it has been smashed open, and through the hole you see a digital display. The joke is the old argument between analogue and digital watches, settled by breaking one to reveal the other. Designed by Ross McBride.

SOH, A Second of Happiness, by Mathilde Ampe

This design project turns the hands into a pair of eyes and lets the wearer swap printed discs to change the face. Hours and minutes are shown on two small rotating indicators, as the drawing in the last picture explains. The idea is that checking the time should make you smile for a second. Designed by Mathilde Ampe.

Earth and Moon by Alexander Sorokin

A design concept with a photographic view of Earth on the dial and the Moon circling it, so the wearer reads the time from the Moon's position. As the light on the globe shifts, it hints at day and night. It was published as a concept on Behance. Designed by Alexander Sorokin.

Story watches from Mr Jones

Time Traveller

London-based Mr Jones Watches is known for dials that tell a small story. Here a ring of black silhouettes of famous landmarks and skylines spreads out from the centre, with a tiny red plane flying overhead. Treat it as a playful nod to travel rather than a precision world-time instrument. Designed by Mr Jones Watches.

Vingt Mille

Wingt Mille Watch – The Two Men Being Held By The Squid Indicate The Hours And Minutes

The name nods to Jules Verne's novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas. A red octopus spreads across a blue dial, and two tiny divers caught in its tentacles show the hours and the minutes as they turn. It is a good example of a watch you read by looking at a picture rather than numbers. Designed by Mr Jones Watches.

The Accurate

The hands carry the words "remember" and "you will die", so the message rearranges itself throughout the day. It is a modern take on the old memento mori tradition: a reminder that time is limited and worth using well. Designed by Mr Jones Watches.

Jokes for the wrist

The melting watch inspired by Salvador Dalí

Salvador Dalí’s Persistence of Memory-Inspired Melted Wristwatch

Salvador Dalí's 1931 painting The Persistence of Memory, with its soft clocks drooping over branches, is one of the most recognised images of Surrealism. This novelty watch bends its case and dial the same way, so the numbers appear to slide off the wrist. It was sold here.

Whatever, I'm Late Anyway

The numbers have given up and fallen in a heap at the bottom of the dial, and a hand-written slogan explains why. It is a gift for the friend who always arrives last, and the hands still keep proper time. Available here.

Equation watch

Each hour marker is a small maths problem whose answer is the number it replaces: the square root of 144 sits at twelve, for example. It is a classroom favourite and a quick mental warm-up every time you check the time. Available here.

Boombox watch by Flud

Shaped like a 1980s portable stereo, complete with speaker grilles and a radio dial, this steel watch shows the time on a red digital display in the cassette window. New York brand Flud built its name on this kind of street-culture design. Designed by Flud Watches.

The Bradley: a watch designed for touch

The Bradley – A Timepiece Designed For The Blind

The Bradley has no hands. Two magnetically driven ball bearings move instead: one around the edge shows the hour, the other across the face shows the minutes, and raised markers let you feel the time without looking. If you knock a ball out of place, a gentle shake brings it back. It is named after Brad Snyder, a US Navy veteran who lost his sight in Afghanistan and went on to win Paralympic gold in swimming. The Kickstarter campaign in 2013 asked for $40,000 and raised more than $594,000 from 3,861 backers, many of them sighted people who simply liked the idea of checking the time discreetly in a meeting. Made by Eone Timepieces.

Why creative watches still matter

None of these watches is needed to know the time, and that is the point. Once a phone handles accuracy, a watch is free to become jewellery, sculpture, a joke or a tool for people who are poorly served by screens. The Bradley shows the practical side of good design: making something work by touch improved it for everyone. The high-end pieces show the other side, keeping alive crafts such as enamel painting, engraving and automaton-making that would otherwise disappear.

If one of these designs appeals to you, a few tips help. Concept designs such as Eye of a Storm or Earth and Moon may never have gone into production, so check before searching for a seller. Limited editions from luxury houses mostly change hands at auctions and specialist dealers. And with unusual dials, try reading the time in a shop or from a video first; some layouts are delightful to look at and slow to read.

Sources: designers and makers credited under each watch; WorldTempus: Midnight Planétarium; GPHG: Midnight Planétarium; WatchTime: Jaquet Droz Bird Repeater; Kickstarter: The Bradley; collection first compiled by Bored Panda.

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