Every year I try to push myself to write a review on an item that I bought and it’s already the second last month of the year 2022. Procrastination definitely took me over this year.
Braun, if you’re a designer, you already know what the company is, or what it meant to industrial design and interaction design. Braun was involved in many different fields, including radios, record players, speakers, alarm clocks, and the field we’re focusing on today: wrist watches. It came as something of a shock to me that the Braun wrist watch (design by Dieter Rams in 1977 and Dietrich Lubs in 1989) had a smaller gene pool than other product categories. It is only then when P&G brought the company and Zeon Ltd took over that the wristwatch models under Braun exploded. If you want to know more, you can have a read on Hodinkee’s article and this website for all the Braun model exists to date.
As the hero image and the title suggest, this is a review of a Braun watch, model no. BN0171, a modern Braun watch released by Zeon Ltd. The watch is released on 2014 under the supervision of Braun’s Head of Design, Oliver Grabes. I should preface this by saying that this is not a technical review of the watch of what you might find on Hodinkee. Since the watch uses a Miyota 2035 quartz movement, there’s not much to say about the movement inside. Instead, the focus of this review is on the watch’s aesthetics. So the review also covers a month’s worth of wearing this on my wrist daily.
The first thing you’ll notice is that the unboxing process seems like an afterthought, with the watch simply presented behind a see-through acrylic cover. The watch is supported by a foam structure with all of the standard documentations tucked underneath it.
First, the overall silhouette of watch, which I believe to be a refinement of the DW20. What’s updated from the 1977 model are the absence of lugs. This results in a very minimal and sleek profile for the watch, which is essentially just the intersection of a circle and a rectangle. Since many other watches, including those by Mido, have a similar lug-less design, I find it hard to believe that this is the first for such timepiece. However, this is a fantastic addition to modern Braun’s already extensive lineup of timepieces.
As you can see from the diagram above, the BN0171 looks like an iteration of DW20, trimming down the fat, reduced to the essentials.
The watch’s diameter is only 38.5mm, which is consider petite in today’s context. However, legacy Braun watches like the AW10 and AW50 has a even smaller 33mm diameters. The BN0171 strikes a nice middle ground between traditional wristwatches and larger, more fashionable timepieces which can go up to a ridiculous size of 49mm. It fits nicely and comfortably on my 17cm wrist and doesn’t interfere when I’m wearing long sleeves.
Setting up the watch is difficult because the crown is small and lacks any grooves to provide a better grip for my fingers. Fortunately, I would only have to adjust the time a handful of times over this watch’s lifetime. In addition, it is not a manually wound watch but rather a quartz one. As an added bonus, it also has seconds hacking, which causes the second hand to stop when the crown is pulled. This enables your watch to be accurate down to the exact second if you wish so. If you’re one of the 10 psychos out there who need their watch to match down to the second. Listen to me, please get help.
While the body and shape of the watch are inspired by the DW20, the watch face follows the design of the AW20, with no numbers just strokes to represent the hours and minutes. The prominent red arrow, date window and the ‘Made in Germany’ imprint (due to the watch is manufactured in China) from the AW20 were removed in order to reduce visual clutter and achieve a more minimal design.
The watch face is matte grey like the case while the hands and indices are white. The iconic yellow second’s hand from Braun legacy products is still retained. The silk-screened indices and minute and hour hands are quite reflective in bright light, adding depth and contrast to the matte dial. Using contrasting textures to establish a hierarchy is a clever move. Some people like the watch face’s monochromatic appearance, while others don’t. I’m on the later end of the spectrum. I prefer the high-contrast watch faces of older Braun watches. The indicator and hands’s white colours can be easily swapped for the brown seen on the Braun ET66 for a warmer tone or just black, in order to make the model more inline with Braun watches with white faces.
Another thing are the hours and second hands, as you can see from a few images of legacy Braun clocks and wrist watches above, the hour hands are noticeably thicker than the seconds hand, which are absent in the BN0171. Quite a small detail, but it would bring so much joys to the one who will notice if it’s implemented.
Turning over the watch, you’ll see the backplate which is made from stainless steel instead of the ceramic material like the other parts of the watch. The sandblasted stainless steel backplate is held by four exposed screws which makes the battery replacement a breeze. The Braun logo and the specifications are engraved on the backplate. I do have concerns on the backplate being scratched by the clasp when laid down on the desk.
The watch bracelet has to be the most enjoyable feature of the watch. Braun is very generous with the ceramics links out of the box, I had to take out 5 links in order for the bracelet to fit my wrist. The links are beautifully designed. When placed on tabletops, the ends of the links nestle into each other, creating a seamless appearance that makes this an attractive accessory.
For ceramic or stainless steel bracelets, the butterfly clasp is the norm. When the clasp closes, the two ends are seamlessly connected to each other. Even though the design of this strap comes close to perfection as it is, I believe that incorporating some micro adjustments butterfly clasp to make it expand at small increments would be preferable to removing a bracelet link entirely. This also addresses a visual issue I had with the bracelet: when the final two links complete the loop, the gap between them is very small in comparison to the gap between the other links, which expands when you wear the watch. With the mirco-adjustment feature implemented, the wearer would also be able to adjust the distance between the two links to be more in line with the other expanded gaps using the micro adjustment feature. Of course, I’m just nitpicking here.
After a month of daily use, I realised that the sides of the butterfly clasp started to scratch the ceramics links making a few dark spots which can’t be wiped off. This is something you need to be aware of if you’re getting the light coloured bracelet.
Looking at the cost of the watch, which retails at $300 and I got it for sale at a half price! It makes me more forgiving on the flaws of the watch besides you can’t really get a ceramic built watch at that price range easily ,even better yet, you get a watch with a great design history, so it’s all worth it. Do I recommend it? Yes, if you can get it under the retail price. Plus when you’re not wearing it, you get one hell of a beauty desk accessory.
Thank you again for reading up to this point, like last year I will try my best to have motivation in writing another review sharing my very, very unprofessional thoughts into the internet. And for you to read it, hopefully have a different view on the items you’ve already own. Nonetheless, thanks again for your time. :)
*all photos are taken by me unless stated otherwise.
