The 2 watches that inspired the Eclipse watch

Max Bill was a renowned Swiss designer, graphic artist and architect of our time. He understood the fine balance between form and function and dedicated his career to develop long lasting forms. This includes one of the most fascinating watch series ever designed – the clocks and wristwatches he created for Junghans that bears his name.

junghans max bill
Photo by https://www.junghans.de

Junghans's Max Bill looks as relevant now as they did 50 years ago and as a graphic designer myself, his work resonates with me and I decided to design a Bauhaus styled watch like his for my first watch. What fascinated me most about the 60s watch was the convex dial that creates a subtle play of light on the watch and I was keen to feature it on the Vario Eclipse but I made it subtle to reflect a more contemporary look unlike the dramatic curve that's popular in the 60s. If you look closer at the markers, the 5 sec markers and seconds marker are in different colour to give it more subtle visual interest.

hamilton intra-matic
Photo by http://www.hamiltonwatch.com

Another watch that the Eclipse paid tribute to was the Hamilton Intra-matic with their sunburst dial and its dynamic quality. When light hits the surface, it is thrown off in radial lines and always changing, making it an enjoyable detail to watch. I've loved colours as a designer and created a few colour variants to make the watch more casual and stylised. The baton hands which extends nearly to the seconds markers are slightly beveled to add a dash of class when paired up with the minimalist sunburst dial. Another reference I took from the modern Hamilton Intra-matic was the saucer form case tapering up to the high-domed sapphire crystal and down to the case back. This gives the watch a much thinner feel and more elegant and flowing. The thin crown is also another feature that was popular in the 60s and help complete the look of the 60s archetype watch with a signed crown.

vario eclipse high dome sapphire glass

The overall look of the Eclipse watch is clean, minimal and attractive much alike the Bauhaus aesthetic popular in the 60s which is still relevant today. It makes a great daily wear for an office environment and its subtle, classic and yet stylised and would work with jeans and slacks as well.

vario eclipse watch inspired by max bill and intra matic
SPECIFICATIONS
Case diameter: 38mm
Case thickness: 7mm (quartz) OR 8mm (handwound)
Crystal: 3mm double dome sapphire (anti-reflective coated on inner surface)
Case material: 316L stainless steel
Dial: convex sunburst dial in silver, red, green, blue, grey and black colour
Movement: Seiko VH31 Sweeping Quartz movement (4 ticks every second) OR Miyota 6T33 hand-wound mechanical movement (8 ticks every second at 28.8kbph with 40 hours reserve)

vario eclipse watch inspired by max bill and intra matic

The 2 watches that inspired the Eclipse watch | VARIO

Shop Eclipse dress watch
https://vario.sg/collections/eclipse-watch-quartz

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