Cool Hunting

As soon I saw Mondaine's playfully crisp design in the display case among all the brightly colored and other "design" watches in the Conran Shop display case, I knew it was the one for me.

I'd recently decided to put an end to digging out my phone to know the time and, after discussing the idea over dinner the other day with Josh, Evan and CH's go-to watch master, was even more enamored with the idea of a watch as a proper, functional accessory. I tried on a few of the men's watches at the table, all steel and of course too big, only getting as far as deciding on something classic but not boring.

Designed in 1986, the award-winning Mondaine's clean, bold lines and exaggerated dot on the end of the red seconds hand combine for a pop art-like effect that's characteristic of the era. The original design however comes from the Swiss railway's official clock which was designed by engineer Hans Hilfiker in 1944. (I like to call the combined design references of the two time periods "feighties.")

Hilfiker developed a unique trick to ensure precision, moving the minute hand to the next minute when the seconds hand is only at 58 seconds, a method that has helped make Switzerland "the most punctual city in the world" and also a feature of the watches.