Dezeen Magazine

Nendo's Draftsman 03 Grid watch design is based on technical drawing paper

Dezeen Watch Store: prolific Japanese studio Nendo has unveiled the third design in its series of watches based on architectural drawing tools with the Draftsman Grid 03.

Nendo Draughtsman 03 Watch Launch

The Grid 03 is the latest addition to the Draftsman collection, following on from the 01 Scale and 02 Stencil launched in 2014.

Each of the designs is based on drawing tools and accessories traditionally used by draftsmen to create technical architecture drawings.

Nendo Draughtsman 03 Watch Launch

The design of the Grid 03 is based on gridded technical drawing paper and measuring tools, with a grey square lattice printed directly onto the underside of the glass that covers the face of the watch.

Nendo Draughtsman 03 Watch Launch

"The third watch in the series, grid, takes inspiration from the grid triangle and graphing paper with a grid dial printed directly on the crystal," said Nendo.

Hour and minute markings are also printed onto the glass, running around the edge of the face, with a smaller ring of markers towards the centre for tracking the seconds.

Nendo Draughtsman 03 Watch Launch

The numbers are laid out to line up with the grid print at the quarter hour markers.

The face itself features no marking, and is instead a single block of colour to match the leather strap.

Nendo Draughtsman 03 Watch Launch

"Drawing from the meaning of the word draftsman, the face of the watch has been intentionally left untouched to signify creating something from scratch in hopes of inspiring the wearer to do just that," said the studio.

The watch comes in three different colours – camel brown, navy and grey. Each has white hour and minute hands, and a second hand that complements the base colour. The camel brown is paired with an orange second hand, the navy with a pale blue hand and the grey with a mustard-yellow hand.

Nendo Draughtsman 03 Watch Launch

All three versions share the same 36-millimetre-diameter stainless steel case, which is 9.6 millimetres thick.

The first watch in the series, the 01 Scale, features graphics similar to increments on a ruler, while the 02 Stencil is based on the translucent templates used to accurately draw circles of various diameters.

Nendo Draughtsman 03 Watch Launch

Nendo's output is constantly expanding, and it now produces more than 100 products a year. This allowed it to produce an exhibition during 2015's Milan design week focusing on just one year's worth of designs.

Nendo Draughtsman 03 Watch Launch

In an interview with Dezeen, studio founder Oki Sato said that working on up to 400 projects at a time relaxes him.

Recent Nendo designs include a series of simplified Star Wars characters, an emergency kit for earthquake victims and mirrored interiors for a cafe and office in Tokyo's Kenzo Tange-designed Sogetsu Kaikan building.