Mid-century modern design, such as vintage wines and vintage Porsches, is one thing people tend to get into. It starts innocently enough with a Hans Wegner chair or George Nelson coat rack, and suddenly you're shopping Dieter Rams shelving units at 1stDibs and signing up for an annual membership at the Noguchi Museum. Watches are pretty much a bit of an obsession, and what does it start with $500 Seiko Desk Diver It can quickly turn into a world of exotic intricacies of related brands Hard-to-pronounce names and five-figure prices. Fortunately, just as there are plenty of them 20th century design goblets are very affordable There, there are also more than a few examples of Beautifully designed watches that don't cost you half a year's salary. It turns out that the Mondaine Swiss Railway watch is both.
In addition to making the world's most sought-after watch industry, Switzerland is also known for having one of the best rail systems in Europe, with 90% of its trains arriving and departing on time (which to anyone who rides Amtrak regularly might sound like science fiction). In the 1940s, the Swiss Federal Railways (or SBB) commissioned engineer Hans Hilfiker to create a new clock design. The result was heavily influenced by the Bauhaus creed — the German school of design attended by titans of modernism like Marcel Breuer and Mies van der Rohe — and its contrasting white face and plump black features made it as elegant as it was easy to read.
In the 1950s, Hilfiker updated the design with a crucial finishing touch: a large red seconds hand modeled after the batons used by SBB train signals—and 75 years later, the design hasn't changed. Nowadays, Hilfiker watches can now be found at every railway station from Appenzell to Zurich, at the Design Museum in London and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and on countless elegant wristwatches around the world.
The Swiss Railways first appeared in watch form in the mid-1980s, when Swiss watchmaker Mondaine licensed the design and transplanted it into a simple 36mm steel case. Over the next forty years or so, Mondaine expanded its lineup to include dozens of creative but faithful takes on the original design in multiple sizes and colors, with quartz and automatic movements, and a wide range of strap options from Milanese mesh to vegan leather. However, for purists, nothing beats the original three-hand model on a simple black leather strap, all the better to emphasize the clean lines of this iconic dial. At under $200, it's remarkably affordable for a 20th-century design icon, but beware: As do funky wines and Porsche vintageIt's a slippery slope from here.
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