THE JOURNAL
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Five Asymmetric Watches For The Non-Conformist
Words by Mr Joshua Hendren
6 March 2023
You wouldn’t let style rules dictate your wardrobe, so why let them influence your choice of timepiece? The functional foundations of watch design mean that most people plump for balanced, symmetrical layouts – but who wants always to be with the majority? The stronger the established norm, the more impact breaking from it can have. We are here to sing the praises of the unbalanced, asymmetrical watch design. Go on, treat yourself to something a bit different.
01.
IWC Schaffhausen Portofino
Since its debut in 1993, the IWC Portofino has had countless iterations, but its focus on pared-back elegance has never wavered. This hand-wound model with a massive eight-day power reserve is our pick. That 192-hour run time is given pride of place on the marine-blue dial with a power reserve indicator at nine o’clock.
02.
Hermès Slim d’Hermès
GMT watches are among the most common complications, but Hermès knocked it out of the park with this stylishly offbeat take on the travel timepiece. The Slim d’Hermès is beautifully unconventional. The erratically placed stencil numerals add a playful personality to the simple business of asking, “What time is it back home?”
03.
NOMOS Glashütte Metro
There is something mesmerising about the understated dials of NOMOS Glashütte timepieces. You might expect a strict adherence to symmetry and geometric form from the German watchmaker that was born in the 1990s with a purist, Bauhaus inspiration, but that just makes the Metro’s off-centre power reserve indicator more impactful. With its curved silhouette and zingy colour-pop details, it remains a cult favourite among watch fans.
04.
Piaget Altiplano
Piaget has a knack of blending an idiosyncratic attitude with classical Swiss know-how. The allure of the Altiplano Ultimate lies in its open-worked layout, which allows a beautifully clear view of its intricate inner workings. The offset dial is fundamental to the watch’s slim construction, because it allows the movement and dial to exist in the same plane.
05.
Girard-Perregaux Laureato
Hitting all the Laureato’s signature touch points – octagonal bezel, Clous de Paris dial, integrated bracelet – the perpetual calendar execution breaks drastically with the norm. No three-six-nine subdial layout here. Instead, the date, day and month displays form a kind of lopsided smile, the whole dial enlivened by flashes of red. It is the textbook definition of versatile quality that can be dressed up or down.
