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Close your eyes and picture a watch. It probably has three hands and a round case. Watches come in all shapes and with any number of hands, but for the most part, they stick to these two staples. In fact, these standards are so expected that we don’t even discuss them. Never have I written a review that noted a watch having a round case or the number of hands unless it was a GMT.
For the average person, the visual likely stops with a round case and three hands, but your enthusiast-driven imagination probably dug deeper to include a dial. But even with all the variety and possibilities a dial can hold, we again have a few design staples that aren’t often deviated from. Indices are usually some sort of circle, triangle or square. Date windows, if they exist, are probably found at the 3:00, the 6:00, or maybe even placed at 4:30 if brands feel tempted to be more divisive than your Uncle Dan when he brings up politics at Thanksgiving dinner.
I often find myself torn between loving these staples of design, while craving watches that dare deviate from them. There is a strong argument to be made not to deviate. Tried and true designs have reserved admiration in our hearts, and sometimes deviating can just look plain wrong. Shoot for the moon and you’ll land among the stars makes for a wonderful motivational poster to hang on a classroom wall. But when it comes to watches, shooting for the moon can land you with unsold inventory and shockingly harsh comments on your social media platforms.
