MOVADO

Achille Ditesheim, then 19 years old, opened a watch mechanism and pocket watch workshop in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, in 1881.

From LAI Ditescheim & Freres SA, he changed the name to Movado in 1905. He picked the name from the Esperanto language, which means "movement" in both the motion and horological senses.

The developed language's totally contemporary, multinational character exemplified the company's forward-thinking design philosophy.

Movado had transitioned from pocket watches to wristwatches at this time, and had developed a particularly noteworthy wristwatch design. The "Polyplan" watch, introduced in 1912, had a form-fitting rectangular casing that curled around the wearer's wrist. The business was able to create a caliber to make this possible thanks to their excellent movement design knowledge.

The movement of the Polyplan was dispersed across a plate that inclined downward at both ends. As a result, the movement's shape was divided into three "planes," thus the term "Polyplan." It fit snugly inside a casing that was strangely shaped at the time thanks to its innovative design.

Certainly, this watch was ahead of its time; after World War I, this kind of watch became popular among males. Even when compared to rivals' subsequent versions, the Polyplan had considerable curvature for watches of this sort.

Movado began to experiment with unique, modern art-inspired designs for its pocket watches in the 1920s.

As a result, Movado adorned them with opulent hues and whimsical, finely enameled and gilded forms.

Not just in their designs, but also in their functioning, these styled timepieces explored unique concepts.

The Movado Ermeto, for example, had a casing with two sliding sections that kept the dial hidden when the watch was closed in the pocket. In later versions, opening and closing the case winded the movement.

The company originally adopted minimalist aesthetics in the 1930s, which would come to define Movado's image.

Movado introduced its line of "digital" watches in the 1930s, which was another foresightful step.

Instead of a dial, these watches had perforations on the faces that let the wearer to tell the time. Movado achieved this by using a set of revolving metal discs with digits etched on them.

This functioned in the same way as digital day and date displays on calendar watches did.

Because these discs took up a lot of room, the numbers on the watch's face were relatively tiny.

Despite this technological restriction, the collection was designed and presented with characteristic Movado inventiveness. In addition, the early digital watches' ultra-simple aesthetics foreshadowed what was to come from the firm.

In 1948, Movado launched their most recognizable model, the one that would come to characterize the company. The Museum Dial Watch was designed by Nathan George Horwitt in 1947.

The wristwatch was reduced to its fundamentals in this design, so that just the absolute minimum of components would detract from its operation.

The Museum is a place where you may learn about The hands of the dial float over a pristine black face with a golden circle at 12 o'clock. The lone index was added to depict the sun rising above the horizon at noon.

The crystal practically reaches the case's edge, with only a narrow bezel margin visible. The bezel's precise circle appears to float over the crown and slender, straight lugs.

The Museum Watch was a one-off model for the firm at the time.

Because of its eternal visual purity, this industrial design classic affects Movado's watch aesthetics today. Later iterations of the design by Movado built on this base while satisfying demand for additional features and functionalities.

Several dress-style lines with calendar complexities were launched around this time by the watchmaker.

These timepieces had slim, modest gold cases and leather straps, just like traditional dress watches.

Their crystals stretched almost to the edge of the case, similar to the Museum Dial and Movado Digital watches.

The dial of the Calendomatic displayed the month, day, hour, minute, and second, among other things. It was also the first of its kind on the market since it possessed a self-winding mechanism.

The Calendoplan had a calendar and a seconds hand as well, but its dial was a more modest cream-and-gold pattern.

The day counter was made smaller and less visible by using an enlarged date aperture. As a consequence, the calendar is tiny, yet while gazing at the watch face-on, the wearer can clearly see it.

During this time, the business also started making ultra-reliable quartz timepieces, such as the Datron chronograph from 1970.

At the time, this was the company's most popular model. The Datron range, which is distinguished by its barrel-shaped casing, is still in production today.

Movado was purchased by the North American Watch Corporation in 1983.

The NAWC was a firm that set out to make luxury timepieces a status symbol in the United States.

This would be a significant achievement since, as NAWC founder Gedalio Grinberg discovered, even the wealthiest Americans loved to wear low-cost timepieces. Even the Rockefellers wore timepieces that cost less than $20, he noticed.

Grinberg went to modern art to create a premium watch that would appeal to Americans.

Modern art acquired popularity as a Western, first-world aesthetic during the Cold War, in contrast to communist art. Museum Watch inventor Nathan George Horwitt, who had known Grinberg, introduced the watch magnate to Movado in the late 1960s.

Grinberg regarded the company as a chance to create a new modern-art-based design for American timepieces. Grinberg sought out several of Horwitt's modern art peers and contemporaries as a result.

Movado got extensively involved in the American modern art scene after relocating their headquarters to the United States.

To design the Movado Painters' Series, Grinberg befriended Andy Warhol and met with many other modern artists of the period. Major characters from pop art, kinetic art, op art, and street art were represented in this line.

For this series, Warhol created the Andy Warhol Times/5, a five-faced watch with five of the artist's photographs of New York. As a result, the five dials all track the same time, in typical Warhol manner.

In James Rosenquist's "Elapse, Eclipse, Ellipse," three sets of hands track three separate time zones utilizing numerous motions. Rosenquist's watch faces blend together, and a sapphire crystal with a complicated, convex shape protects them.

Yaacov Agam, a key player in the Kinetic Art movement, created sixteen timepieces for Movado, four of which are wristwatches.

"Galaxy," "Lovestar," "Multidimension," and "Rainbow" are the four. Instead of typical hands, these watches featured transparent disks painted with colorful shapes superimposed on one another.

Max Bill, the creator of the Concrete Art movement, contributed a little more conventional design to the Artists' Series, the "bill-time." This watch was made in a limited edition of only 99 pieces by Movado.

Nathan George Horwitt, the creator of the Museum Watch, was roughly 90 years old at the time. He has approached a number of watch manufactures with this design over the years. Only Movado, in the end, shared his belief in his goal.

As a result of his collaboration with Grinberg, he was able to realize his concept for the Museum Watch. Horwitt's design was shown in numerous art and design museums across the world as a result of the company's success with the watch, as mentioned in this list. As a result, the golden dot on the Museum Watch came to represent Movado throughout time.

After Horwitt's death in 1990, they proceeded to build new variants of the Museum Watch design. They produced the Imperiale in 1981, a variation of the Museum watch with a steel link bracelet rather of a leather one. The golden dot design at the top of the dial is repeated in the bracelet's metal links.

Movado has a history of forward-thinking design, therefore new technologies are being used in fresh interpretations of the Museum Watch. Ion vapor deposition, for example, allows the steel casings of the BOLD series to match the hues of the leather straps. In contemporary timepieces, new materials such as TR90 "memory plastic" exist.

This watch is also available as an exercise watch.

There are additional quartz-movement chronographs in the BOLD series, which display a notably little amount of data. The dial and subdials are punctuated by small black markings, with a single number at the top of each subdial.

Yves Béhar, a Swiss artist and designer, created the Movado Edge, which has basic shapes with patterned texture. This watch has the same dimensions as the original Museum Dial Watch, which means it has a thin bezel and a low-profile crown.

The Edge's concave front has radiating blended grooves, which are Béhar's characteristic use of texture.

Because many consumers prefer readable numbers indexes, Movado now sells timepieces with less basic details.

The Series 800 has a case that resembles, but is not identical to, the Datron's tonneau form from 1970.

This watch has a quartz movement that is extremely precise, and the casing is composed of aluminum and steel.

Movado began making smartwatches in the 2010s, offering versions with fully digital displays as well as those with analog dials. All of these watches are compatible with both Android and iOS.

A dial with LED indication lights surrounds the bezel of the Movado Bold Motion, a cooperative creation with HP. These flash in tandem with the watch's vibrations to alert you to alerts on your linked phone.

The user may control certain sorts of alerts by enabling, disabling, or prioritizing them using the watch's app. The Museum Dial dot at 12 o'clock on the Bold is also an LED indication that may be exploited by the app.

The Bold Motion and another analog-dial smartwatch, the Museum Sport Motion, synchronize their date and time with the user's phone.

Both watches contain basic fitness watch features, such as step counters that can be monitored using the applications that come with the devices.

The Connect and Bold Connected II are entirely digital display lines.

These are more traditional smartwatches, therefore their screens are fully integrated with their smartphones.

Their applications include virtual dials inspired by the Museum Watch, Movado Bold, and other watches.