Like the Max Bill watches, if someone told you this was a new design (assuming you had never seen them) you wouldn’t question it. It’s remarkable just how fresh the design feels. As expected, the dial features the standard Hilfiker forms, executed with applied black markers for a touch of depth. It reminded me watching the clock in high school, where ever second seemed to take 2.īeyond the movement, the watch is a slightly more contemporary version of the classic, designed by the German designer, Martin Dreschel. It also adds a bit of suspense, as you watch and wait for the minute hand to jump. Whether you use this time to ponder the accuracy of Swiss trains (weird) or anything else is up to you. One slightly poetic side effect is that it gives you a 2 seconds pause every minute. You can wait for it, or happen to catch it accidentally. Your watch puts on a little show every minute. The experience of watching it is interesting and certainly unique. It’s powered by a lithium battery that should give it 3 years of life. As the watch is not controlled by a central signal, the unique stopping motion is novel rather than the effect of synchronization, but as it’s a quartz it is accurate regardless. Unlike most quartz watches, the Stop2Go also has a sweep seconds, ticking at a rate of about 4 times per second. The time and motion of the hands is regulated by a “Special Integrated Circuit” in order to maintain accuracy. It’s a quartz movement with two motors, one for the seconds hand and the other for the minute and hour. The Stop2Go watch features a movement that replicates this motion. Anyone who rides the NYC subway is instantly envious of such a reliable system. Also, trains only leave at the top of the minute, synchronizing their motion with the trains. In doing this, they assure synchronization across all rail station clocks. It waits there until it receives an electric signal from a central hub, which tells the minute to jump and the seconds to reactivate. What is happening is that the second hand is accelerated to complete a rotation in 58 seconds. You’ll notice it stops, waits 2 seconds at which point the minute hand jumps forward, and the second hand resumes. If you happen to find yourself on a Swiss Railway platform, watch the clock closely as the second hand reaches 60. In the nearly 30 years since their creation, there have been many versions and variations on the design, from mechanical varieties to phantom palettes, but the original clock has always remained at the core of their aesthetic.įor 2013/14, Mondaine has created something very unique with their Stop2Go, tying the watch back to its source in the Swiss Railway. Certainly more familiar to those of us in the states, the Mondaine watches are simple, legible and classic. Starting in 1986, Mondaine began producing the Official Swiss Railway (SBB) watches, which replicated the original Hilfiker design. Of course, you don’t actually have to travel to Switzerland to see these timepieces in action, but rather take a trip to your local museum shop. In the over 60 years since, the design has remained, as its vocabulary of modern forms is as relevant today as it originally was. Originally designed in 1944 by Hans Hilfiker, the bold, geometric design that speaks to the Bauhaus philosophy has become iconic and a symbol of accuracy. If you’ve ever traveled around by train in Switzerland, you’ve relied on the Swiss Railway clocks at every station, with their distinct red seconds hand and easy to read layout.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |