I’ve seen watches with buckles, clasps, velcro, and even magnetic closures – but I’ve never seen anything like this before.
Dubbed rather simply as the ‘Watch Concept’, this timepiece from Swiss architect-turned-designer Johan Link explores something fascinatingly new. The watch opens and closes at the body, which means the body is quite literally its ‘clasp’, with a two-piece metal outer shell that opens up to reveal an acrylic core that has the watch encased inside.
Designer: Johan Link
Words don’t do justice to Johan’s Watch Concept, but the GIF above displays his new ‘clasp’ mechanism perfectly. Most watch clasps are 3-piece linkages located on the lower side of the strap. Johan shifts the entire clasp linkage to the top, integrating it INTO the watch’s body. This means the case splits into two, with the watch underneath. When shut, you’ve got a watch that’s somewhat ‘trapped’ inside its metal shell.
Link’s aesthetic is fairly metal-leaning, with a watch case that obscures most of the watch inside, revealing just the hands through a donut-shaped cutout. The strap has a metallic finish too, and when closed, you really have a watch that goes heavy on the minimalism. Open the clasp, however, and you understand how much detail hides behind this minimalist facade.
The watch’s inner core sits within a transparent acrylic shell, mirroring the appeal of those aggressively domed sapphire glass pieces seen on most high-end watches. You have the numerals printed directly on the glass, with yellow watch hand underneath that contrast wonderfully against the black watch face. On the reverse, you see the watch’s movement, clearly visible behind the acrylic facade. A cutout on the metal casing on the back acts as an exhibition window of sorts. The watch crown sits at 3 o’clock, and if there’s one complaint I have, it’s that the crown hides inside the metal case when shut, making it inaccessible.
You can wear the watch like you regularly would, clasping it around your wrist, or open it up to view the time in your palm the way you’d hold a pocket watch. There’s nothing functionally ‘superior’ about Johan’s watch concept, but watches are more about art, fashion, and expression than pure specs and functionality. By that metric, Johan’s experiment is quite the winner, resulting in a watch that looks and feels unique. The design may be conceptual for now, but you know that it would be a technical masterpiece too, given that Johan’s roots are in Switzerland, the very epicenter of haute horology.
You might know Johan from some of his other famous works like the Babot – a robotic side table that can ‘catch’ anything you throw onto it, or the Link-1, a wristwatch that Johan built quite literally from scratch. A lot of Johan’s work defies convention, opting for new form factors, new user experiences, and an overall creative relook at the world around us.
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