Look! 5 watches that display the time in a completely ingenious way

A. Lange & Söhne Zeitwerk: Once we got past the water clocks and sun-dials, mankind has largely depended on the two-hands-sweeping-across-the-dial display to tell the time. Many will argue that it’s not the best or the most intuitive way to tell time, but we’ll save that debate for another day. These five ingenious watches – starting with the A. Lange & Söhne Zeitwerk - feature alternative time displays. When it was launched in 2009, there was nothing quite like the Zeitwerk. A timepiece with a precisely jumping digital display and a lavishly finished movement, the Zeitwerk has enough horological wizardry (it features a remontoir d’egalité, a device used to provide constant force to the escapement) to keep even the purists excited. Today, it represents the modern face of the venerable German watchmaker. The display was inspired by the Five-Minute Clock that sits in Dresden’s Semper Opera. The large displays for hours and minutes are arranged along the same plane. The passing minutes are displayed with two discs — the units disc (with numerals 0 to 9) and the tens disc (numerals 0 to 5) share the same axis. An analogue small seconds is placed just beneath the digital display.

Genus GNS1.2 TD: The dial of the Genus GNS1.2 TD is a hub of activity. The hours are indicated by a fixed arrow (or marker) at the 9 o’ clock position and each hour is represented by a satellite that orbits around the periphery of the dial. The minutes indicator is a bit more complex – the tens of minutes is denoted by an indicator that serves as the engine of a 12-carriage train that snakes around the two sub-dials that house the tens units that make up the hour. The train travels around these two sub-dials in a figure eight-like formation. The units of the minute display is indicated by a revolving ones disc set against a fixed arrow at the 3 o’ clock position. The time indicated in the displayed image is 8:08

Gorilla Outlaw Drift: The Outlaw Drift is an affordable choice for those looking a Wandering Hours complication. In a Wandering Hours display, time is indicated by moving a pointer showing the hour across an arc printed with the minutes scale. First used in clocks in the 17th century, Audemars Piguet is credited with bringing this complication to the modern age when it debuted the Star Wheel in 1991. Brands like Urwerk and Arnold & Sons have since produced watches with this complication. A blue anodized aluminium flange holds the minutes track. A black carousel cage at the centre of the dial holds the three blue star satellites with luminescent hour numerals that wander around the dial indicating time. The time indicated in the above image is 10:00.

Christoph Claret X-Trem-1: This watch has a retrograde hours and minutes display system. Two tiny hollowed steel spheres float magnetically within sapphire tubes on the left and right sides of the case to indicate time against the applied markings. The spheres are pulled by magnetic carriages following a thread that’s tied to the gear train. The tube on the left indicates the hours and the one on the right indicates the minutes. The passing seconds is indicated by a flying tourbillon at the bottom of the watch which completes one rotation every 30 seconds. Though magnetic fields can adversely affect the running of a mechanical watch movement, the watchmakers have done an incredible job of insulating the movement from the effects of the magnet.

HYT Skull 48.8: Swiss brand HYT pioneered the concept of fluid time display in 2012 when it pushed liquids through a tube-and-bellows system that’s tied to mechanical movement to tell us the time. A coloured liquid is pushed through one end while a clear one is pushed through the other. The two liquids don’t mix and the meniscus between the two fluids marks the point at which hours are read off. On the Skull 48.8, a skull-shaped capillary runs along the edges of the skull and contains the two fluids – one transparent and the other matches the colour scheme of the watch, the three limited editions incorporate red, green and blue fluid respectively. Rotating discs placed in the broad eyes of the skull indicate the power reserve (on the right eye) and the elapsed seconds on the left. The coloured liquid documents the recent past; a transparent fluid indicates the foreseeable future. Their meeting point is a meniscus that indicates the current time.