UNO 24 one-hand watch from BOTTA – the 24-hour original
What would a maximally simplified, but at the same time consistently logical wristwatch look like? Probably like the UNO 24 designed by Klaus Botta. That would be the logical design for a watch – with just one hand and a 24-hour scale. After all, the day has 24 hours, not twelve. The 24-hour scale makes it clear which time it is, whereas a twelve-hour display system is always somewhat ambiguous: For example, a hand pointing to the “4” can mean two things – either four o’clock in the morning or four in the afternoon. Naturally, a more approximate watch of this kind is not suitable for telling the time to the nearest minute, let alone to the nearest second – but that is not what the UNO-24 is designed for. It invites you instead to adopt a more relaxed attitude to time. The real strength of the UNO 24 one-hand watch from Botta-Design lies in its simple yet impressive ability to present the entire day at a glance in an analogue graphic form. This allows the wearer to take a somewhat different and significantly more relaxed approach to time.
Click here for an explanation of how the 24-hour one-hand principle works and an illustration showing you how to tell the time on a 24-hour watch.
UNO 24: the iconic 24-Hour one-hand watch - an entire day in one rotation
The precise hand completes just one full rotation on the specially developed scale every 24 hours. A delicate line at midnight marks the transition from one day to the next. As soon as the hand crosses this line, the date jumps forward to show the new day. The UNO 24 one-hand watch shows the passing of the day in an analogue graphic form, the positioning of the watch hand on the dial reflecting the sun’s position in the sky.
This watch allows the time to be told to an accuracy of roughly five minutes. Which is more than sufficient in 99% of cases – and for the remaining one percent we will always have our smartphone or mobile.
If you like the idea of experiencing the day as a whole once again and are looking for a German-made watch of particularly high technical and design quality, you are certain to derive a great deal of pleasure from Botta-Design’s UNO 24 one-hand watch – and will discover new details every day.
Our unique 24-hour watches are exclusively available in our online shop. If you have any questions, please call us directly on +49 6174 961188 (9 am – 12 pm and 2- 6 pm) or write to us at info@botta-design.de.
In many countries it is now the norm to use the 24-hour clock. The alternative is the 12-hour clock, which is still the standard used in most watches. Civilizations such as the Babylonians and Ancient Greeks began dividing up the day into 24 hours, though they generally considered sunrise to mark the start of the day rather than midnight. 24-hour clocks began to become more popular in the late Middle Ages. Featuring a mechanical movement, they used just one hand to present 24 hours. From the sixteenth century, it then became standard practice to artificially divide the 24-hour day into two twelve-hour phases. The dial of a 24-hour watch shows the hours from 1 to 24, while a twelve-hour watch presents only the numbers from 1 to 12. Consequently, the small hand completes two rotations each day. The advantage of the 24-hour display is that it is possible to tell the time intuitively at a glance. Nonetheless, the twelve-hour watch has become the norm, so 24-hour one-hand watches are very much a rarity these days. Wearers of a 24-hour one-hand watch are able to perceive the day as a whole again. Botta-Design’s 24-hour watches – such as the UNO24 – are exclusively available in our online shop.
