Best Single Hand Watches: Beyond MeisterSinger - Vintage & Modern Examples Sought

groodles · Jan 15, 2025

Hi everyone -- I've recently been interested in buying a single hand watch like those made by Meistersinger, but have been looking for some other options. I've also seen some of the (beautiful) examples made by Jorg Schauer and some vintage Hermes pieces from the 1950s, but not much else besides some modern companies making them with quartz movements.

I realize these aren't super popular, but wanted to see if any forum members had any favorites in this style, potentially vintage that I could try to chase down? Thanks in advance!

JimInOz · Jan 15, 2025

My mate was wearing a Meistersinger and that got me interested.
I didn't want to spend a lot so I got a local "Jacopo Dondi" brand (quartz) to see if I could get to like the 24hr dial.

I wore it for a few days, but we just didn't click, so now it's just in my collection as an example of a 24hr one hander.

BTW, I think they've gone out of business.

hen · Thurs. 6:20am

Strange and interesting watches, is there a specific reason they are made like this?

I tried to tell the time with the examples above, surly needs some getting used to.

groodles · Thurs. 11:23am

hen
Strange and interesting watches, is there a specific reason they are made like this?

I tried to tell the time with the examples above, surly needs some getting used to.

My understanding is that they resemble ancient time-telling methods like sundials. I've also read some folly about them "slowing down" and "changing" your perspective of time lol, but surely that's just advertising nonsense. I honestly just really like the simplicity and how it looks on the dial, which is what gets me interested in most other watches anyway😂

ghce · Thurs. 1:51pm

groodles

That Hermes I think looks wonderful and easy to read, the others require an extra thought process which may become automatic but the with the Hermes the time to the minute is right in front of you much like a Montgomery dial.

And as a curiosity I quite like Jim's 24 hour dial, I could get used to that.

groodles · Thurs. 2:07pm

ghce
That Hermes I think looks wonderful and easy to read, the others require an extra thought process which may become automatic but the with the Hermes the time to the minute is right in front of you much like a Montgomery dial.

And as a curiosity I quite like Jim's 24 hour dial, I could get used to that.

Agreed! Definitely a nice example of that piece. Super hard to find one that's all original though--Found one on ebay that definitely has a replacement hand and probably dial, too.

If you like the 24 hour style, I did find a couple of other (still active) brands making cheaper quartz models in that style during my search. Svalbard, Botta, and Slow watches are the names if you are interested 🙂

Waltesefalcon · Thurs. 6:08pm

The fad of having a minute is passing. By stripping away all unnecessary complications we are returning to the truth of what a watch should be, just like our seventeenth century forebears.

groodles · Thurs. 6:49pm

Waltesefalcon
The fad of having a minute is passing. By stripping away all unnecessary complications we are returning to the truth of what a watch should be, just like our seventeenth century forebears.