Five contemporary design watches for Father’s Day

By Rebecca Doulton

Is he a design freak or does he go for a more classical approach when it comes to men’s watches? If he is design-oriented and appreciates a contemporary take on time-telling, we have some superb designer watches that could very well fit the bill for Father’s Day gift ideas.

I met Hannes Bonhoff, founder and owner of BONHOFF watches, at SalonQP last year and was completely mesmerised by his abstract and novel approach to displaying time. Unlike any other watch you have probably ever seen, the BONHOFF IP3.0 offers time on demand displayed by concentric circles. The sleek minimalist dial has no numbers or hands to tell the time, to discover this you have to rotate the bezel and align the circles - the larger circles represent the minutes and the smaller ones the hours. Keeping time below the circles is a Swiss-made automatic mechanical movement.

Watch more about last year's Salon QP here

Another great Father’s Day gift idea is any of the stylish Nomos watches. Admittedly one of my favourite contemporary brands, the pure Bauhaus aesthetics of this German watchmaker never tire. The Lambda watch is one of the more luxurious offerings of the brand from Glashütte. This particular Lambda Deep Blue model comes in a slim 42mm white gold case with a rich lacquered blue dial, which displays the power reserve arc at the top of the dial and a small seconds counter at 6 o’clock. Powered by an in-house, manual-winding Nomos calibre, the prominent presence of the power reserve indicator attests to the three and a half days - or 84 hours - the watch will tick before needing to be rewound.

Read more about Nomos watches here

Giuliano Mazzuoli has no qualms about admitting that he is not a watchmaker. He is first and foremost an Italian designer, as you will appreciate in this 10th anniversary model of the iconic Manometro. The inspiration for the original Manometro designer watches came from a humble pressure gauge, and its simple, legible design and restraint has seduced many watch fanatics since 2005. The 45mm stainless steel case, featuring Giuliano Mazzuoli’s signature below the crown, houses a Swiss mechanical automatic movement resilient to shocks, and is water resistant to 50 metres. The anniversary Manometro is a limited edition of just 120 pieces.

Fascinated by Bach’s fugues and the way they manage to turn music and our expectations upside down, founder and designer of MeisterSinger watches Manfred Brassler has approached his brand with a similar sense of independence and unconventionality. MeisterSinger has become synonymous with single-handed watches but, make no mistake, a single-handed watch is not a simple one and can house complications such as a second time zone and jumping hours. The Salthora Meta model, launched earlier this year, employs the hallmark single hand to read off the minutes, while the jumping hours are displayed in a window at 12 o’clock.

Ressence is another brand that likes to bend the rules and has come up with novel ways to represent time. The Type 1 watch is a wonderful merry-go-round of highly graphic codes with no hands or crown. Spherical discs on the dial displaying hours (the largest circle with Ressence hand logo), minutes (exterior track), seconds (the counter at 12 o’clock) and the day of the week (at 4 o’clock) are constantly revolving, as does the whole dial. Another great aspect of these men’s watches is the convex curve of the dial and the minimalist bezel, which makes the whole revolving display literally float under your gaze.

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The Bonhoff IP3.0 watch offers time on demand displayed by concentric circles. The groovy and sleek minimalist dial has no numbers and no hands to tell the time.
Bonhoff IP3.0 watch offers an innovative approach to time telling: to discover the time, you have to rotate the bezel and align the circles, the larger circles represent the minutes and the smaller ones represent the hours.
Giuliano Mazzuoli 10th anniversary limited edition Manometro (pressure gauge) watch.
MeisterSinger Salthora Meta watch follows the brand's identity of single-handed watches. The single hand is used to read the minutes while the jumping hours are displayed in a window at 12 o’clock.
Nomos Lambda 42mm watch in a rose gold case with a white dial featuring a power reserve indicator (84 hours) and a small seconds counter at 6 o'clock.
Nomos Lambda Deep Blue watch comes in a 42mm white gold case with a lacquered dial.
Ressence Type I watch displays time in a novel way with rotating discs on the dial to indicate the hours, minutes, seconds and day of the week.
Ressence Type 1 watch models have no hands and no crown. To adjust the time, the sapphire caseback doubles up as a crown. All Type 1 models come in 42mm titanium case and feature convex dials.