Today, we’ll bring to a close the trio of German watch reviews I’ve done over the last week (this includes the Archimede as well as the Chyros). While those earlier watches were dress pieces, this one takes you in quite a different direction.
Now, if you understand German (or looked at the pictures in the post), you know that Eins means one – so here, we’ve got a single-hand watch. This by its very nature forces you to have a more relaxed outlook on time. Or, at a minimum, makes you concede that you’ll not be telling time with 100% accuracy.
With a single hand (basically, the hour hand), your dial increments are marked out for 15 minutes. So, if you’re right on the hour, or one of the 15s (:15, :30, :45), you know exactly what time it is. Anything other than that, it’s really guesstimating.
Now, just because you’re only driving a single hand, and the readout isn’t as accurate, doesn’t mean you can’t have a good movement keeping time. Here, we’ve got an ETA 2824-2 tucked away in the 42mm stainless steel case (with a flawless PVD coating as well).
You also have a sapphire crystal covering the dial, which has lume applied to the hands and the indices, so your estimating can continue on into the night. Rounding things out you’ve got a nice calfskin strap, and a water resistance rating of 50 meters.
Is this the watch for you? For me, I’d have to say no. While there’s a lot to like, and it is a nice mechanical timepiece, the missing hand (or hands) really threw me off. Rather than relaxing my perception of time, it just made me look for something else to double-check the time with. But, I readily admit that is part of my personality.
For you, you just have to decide if you can adjust to the method of display. If you have a more fluid relationship with the passing of time, the Eins could very well be the watch for you. You can pick up your own juxtaposition of German precision and relaxed time for just a hair under $600, at current exchange rates.
