Introducing the Mechanik2, a Sequel to One in all Our Favourite Sleeper Watches

You need to discuss sleeper watches? Minimalist watches? Watches that look like one factor however are literally one thing else totally? Man oh man, do we have now a look ahead to you, in some way slotting into all of those classes. The Mechanik2 is an annual calendar, and a monopusher chronograph, and a sequel of types to one of the vital inside baseball watches ever made. It’s additionally surprisingly inexpensive contemplating the issues concerned, and has actual design pedigree that astute collectors and followers of unbiased watchmaking are certain to understand. 

To actually get a grasp on the Mechanik2, it in all probability is smart to begin with the watch that got here earlier than it, the MIH watch. MIH is the Musée Worldwide d’Horlogerie in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, and the unique watch was produced between 2005 and 2020 at a charge of simply 100 items per yr with proceeds going to fund the museum. The curator of the museum in 2005 was none aside from Dr. Ludwig Oechslin, a reputation many readers will acknowledge as one of many founders of ochs und junior, a model that we cowl steadily right here at Worn & Wound and whose aesthetic you’ll little question discover some similarities with on the subject of the Mechanik2. In any occasion, the MIH watch stays notable for its considerably ingenious format, which featured a chronograph learn from the case again to maintain the dial as clear as potential. 

Now, two years after the MIH watch was discontinued, the Mechanik2 seems courtesy of Christian Gafner, a Swiss industrial designer answerable for the preliminary design of the MIH watch all these years in the past. Gafner and Oechslin have teamed up as soon as once more on a watch that appears remarkably just like the MIH piece, however has new performance that makes it even easier and extra streamlined, if that’s potential. 

Let’s deal with the watch’s most blatant complication first, the implementation of an annual calendar. An annual calendar is a very helpful calendar complication, solely needing to be manually adjusted as soon as per yr, on the transition from February to March. Fairly often these calendars, like a full perpetual calendar, are executed by the use of visually complicated (and generally tough to learn) subdials that present a readout of the month and date. On the Mechanik2, as on the MIH watch, the apertures for day of the week, month, and date are organized horizontally on the 3:00 place, offering a simple and pure reference for the wearer of the watch every time the calendar must be checked. As you’d anticipate in an Oeschslin designed complication, the mechanics listed here are really minimal, achieved with solely 9 extra parts through a module connected to the Valjoux 7750 base motion. 

Sure, that’s a chronograph motion, and also you’d be forgiven for not instantly figuring out the Mechanik2 as a chronograph. In actual fact, that’s type of the entire pont. Whereas the chronograph performance on the MIH was really hidden, that includes a small aperture on the case again indicating elapsed minutes as much as 30, right here that indication has been moved to the dial through a 30 minute counter manufactured from a collection of round apertures with a roving crimson dot indicating the elapsed minutes. The centrally mounted chronograph seconds hand counts off elapsed seconds in the best way you’d anticipate it to, whereas the round minute indicator gives not simply a simple to solution to totalize elapsed time, however offers you a way at a look of how deep you’re into any given half hour timed occasion. 

If the dial and motion are one thing of a tribute to minimalist beliefs in watch design, the case is a stable match (and doesn’t appear to deviate in any respect from the MIH design). It’s a matte titanium end and measures 42mm in diameter and 13.7mm tall. It’s rigorously easy, and paired with a plain black rubber strap, it’s simple to think about this watch flying beneath the radar at even probably the most enthusiastic watch get-togethers and meetups. From a distance (even up shut) there’s a generic high quality to the watch that deliberately obscures the entire legitimately attention-grabbing issues occurring beneath the hood, and that’s actually an unlimited a part of the attraction. 

The Mechanik2 can also be surprisingly inexpensive. The retail worth is CHF 6,420 with out VAT, which frankly looks like a steal contemplating the novelty of this explicit annual calendar complication paired with a monopusher chronograph. The watch is accessible for pre-order starting this month, with deliveries anticipated to start later this yr. Mechanik2