Picto Watch – The "New Design“

Still a design icon

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Picto Watch; Epson y120e; Front

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Picto Watch; Epson y120e; movement

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Picto Watch; Epson y120e; movement

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Picto Watch; Epson y120e; back cover inside

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Picto Watch; Epson y120e; back cover

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Picto Watch; Epson y120e; back

Junghans worked not only with the designer Max Bill, they also created some more watch icons with other well-known designers.

In the 80ies immersed in the world of design, the term "New Design" and a wonderful example of this design language is the 1984 launched "Picto Watch". The design was created by the two Danes Steen Georg Christensen and Erling Andersen.

The dial of the watch should be a "picture" representing the time. The hour hand has been replaced by a point that rotates on a pane of glass and the minute hand is a rounded bar. So the clock shows just 10:10.

Back then, the innovative design with its minimalist aesthetic makes the Picto Watch for an everlasting classic watch design and this style icon from Junghans is i.a. shown in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

The original shown here from the 1980s uses a quartz movement (Epson y120e), the modern successor of the Picto Watch are equipped with Miyota movements.

The watch may have seen better days, but works perfectly. The back cover was originally just covered in black like the rest of the case and was abraded. Even at the edge of the case is already missing the black coating. The strap is not original.

Remark

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Timex; Front

Some sources about the Picto Watch is that the use of a disc instead of a pointer representing a novelty. That might not be correct because the mechanical Timex that I have received in 1977 for school enrollment also uses such one as "second hand". Idefix, who makes his rounds on a fine disc. And there are certainly more past examples...