To a man like Max Bill, the chunky, uber-luxe tachymeter diving watch is more than just tacky. It’s tachy. An immoral abomination. As a perfect counterpoint to the Rolex Submariner look, we have this German Junghans watch, a Bauhaus-inspired timepiece that Bill designed.
Max Bill is one of those overlooked 20th-century designers that should be as well-known as Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky, and the other artists under whom he studied at the Bauhaus school. Like Dieter Rams (who made superb timepieces, and the occasional lighter, for Junghan’s competitor Braun), or Paul Rand (who designed the famous IBM logo), Max Bill rewrote design in the second half of the 20th century. He helped move the material world form the ornate and overwrought to something pared down, functional and clean.
And now, for $US510 at Bureau of Trade, you can borrow a bit of Bill’s style.