The "MIH" I think it is one of the most sophisticated and beautiful pieces available.




THE DESIGN
Industrial designer Christian Gafner was brought in to create the watchs exterior. He was viewed as ideally placed to design a watch, the like of which has never been seen. His experience lies mainly outside the watch industry, as a consequence of which the MIH Watch has managed to sidestep the traditional design cues normally passed down through the generations of mechanical watches. It is, instead, reduced to its essential elements. Gafner resolved not to allow any labelling or logo on the dial other than the day/date display at 3 oclock and the initials MIH (Musée International dHorlogerie) replacing the 9 oclock index. The fact that the watch is «Swiss Made» is self-evident, even if there is no wording to that effect on the dial. References to its watertightness are made in the accompanying documentation. The dial is kept matt black to optimise the readability of the superluminova-coated hands and indices, whose interrelationships are clear and unambiguous; a nice touch the minute hand forms an unbroken line with the longer 6, 9 and 12 oclock indices. The difference in length between the min-ute and hour hands is equivalent to the length of these three longer indices.

THE WATCH
In line with Ludwig Oechslins reductionist concept, the watch is pared down to its essential elements, yet retains a crucial complication, namely, the calendar. Watches with date displays are common enough, but few are able to show the day of the week, month and date and keep track of the different numbers of days in the months. Two types of mechanical calendar are capable of this: perpetual calendars, which are built around highly complex mechanisms that go so far as to recognise irregularities such as leap years, and annual calendars, which have to be corrected once a year at the end of February to take into account that months occasional idiosyncrasy. Even annual calendars tend towards technical complexity, with display windows often distributed around the entire dial for constructional reasons, making them counter-intuitive to read. Ludwig Oechslin has met this challenge head on and come up with a design for an annual calendar that is built around just nine moving parts and its display is contained within one easy-to-read window. As Curator of the MIH, Ludwig Oechslin is debarred from working for other commercial companies. This is what led to the idea originated in partnership with EMBASSY of transforming the museum itself into a brand and earmarking some of the sales revenues for specific MIH projects.

THE MECHANISM
The calendar complication devised by Ludwig Oechslin is reduced to its essential elements; nevertheless, with its ability to display the day of the week, month and date and keep track of the different numbers of days in the months, it extracts maximum benefit from the smallest number of moving parts. Master watchmaker Paul Gerber brought the calendar mechanism to series maturity and constructed the watch prototypes. This exceptional watchmaker also chose the basic movement for the watch: an ETA-Valjoux calibre 7750, which possesses sufficient torque to drive the calendars disks reliably. The calendar mechanism is entirely manufactured at Paul Gerbers ateliers, which is also where every MIH Watch is assembled and activated. The day/date, displayed in a wide window located at 3 oclock, consists of three concentric disks, the innermost disk showing the day of the week, the middle one the month and the outer one the date. The date disk is given an impulse at midnight by means of a mechanism incorporated in the watchs movement. The other two disks and, at certain junctures, the date disk are propelled by a separate mechanism that is coupled to the hour pipe via a multifunctional intermediate gear, which makes two entire revolutions in each twentyfour hour period. This means, perforce, that two impulses are given per day, which in turn means that every day of the week is inscribed twice on the inner disk. This feature enabled the provision of a separate AM-PM display. In a month of thirty-one days, the outer date disk moves the middle disk on by one month. In thirty-day months, the middle disks 31st day is bypassed by receiving, in turn, an indirect impulse from the hour pipe. Due to the minimalist nature of the mechanism, the day disk is designed to change with a very slight delay.

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Montreal, Canada

ROCK ON MONKEY BOY! EVERYBODY WAVE FOR MONKEY BOY! I SAY EVERYBODY DANCE FOR MONKEY BOY!

innovation to create the calendar mechanism is very cool although im not a big fan of the design to be honest. I think they could have done more to it,

Best,
K

A true friend stabs you in the front.
-Oscar Wilde

this design either. Many products are said to be designed to be minimalist but then I think that it makes the product blend in with all the rest. The aesthetics might be more of an acquired taste, and definately only for connoisseurs to appreciate.

Designed by an industrial designer too... I wish there were more industrial designers in the watchmaking industry.

Jason

however the design (as said before) is TOO subtle for me. It's such a cool watch and I think it was very well thoughtout for the design and I can really appreciate that. But for me... I don't know, it just doesn't speak to me as loud as others cough panerai cough

-James

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There are three kinds of people in the world: those who can count, and those who can't. -Warren Buffett

it doesn't sing to me very much and I really can't put my finger on the reason why not.

Cheers!
Jason.
111 Love to all!
North Shore New Brunswick, Canada

Thanks

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