#HTE

4N’s Crazy Mechanical Digital Watch

Wristwatches are the only universally-accepted piece of wearable technology, and it’s fascinating to see how far designers can push their boundaries. While the mere timetelling functionality was perfected long ago, modern-day watch designers vie to outdo each other with their “complications,” i.e. the sophisticated supporting operations that are going on inside the watch. From a functional standpoint these could be deemed extraneous, but their mechanical prowess often delights.

One of the more interesting designs we’ve seen lately is French watch brand 4N’s MVT01/D01. This transparent watch wears its guts on its sleeve, and feeds the numbers into a delineated rectangle in a rather wondrous fashion.

These discs intercept and overlap to display the time, perfectly centred in the watch. The size of the numbers is dramatically large (5.5 mm), contributing to the comfort and unmatched ease of readability.

Here’s what you see when the time changes:

Here’s a closer look from a few different angles:

What’s not clear in the video is that the operation is apparently quite audible. “Its resolutely masculine spirit,” the company writes, “with powerful mechanical sounds confirms the unapologetic high-technicality of this piece.”