The benchmark
By Sam Okafor, London ยท
Every few months someone asks me which watch they should buy if they care about design and have around two thousand dollars. I always say the Tangente first, then listen to their objections.
The objections are usually about size. 37.5 mm sounds small on paper, but the Tangente's long, straight lugs make it wear larger than the number, and the white space on the silver dial does the rest. What matters more is 6.8 mm. I've not found a mechanical watch at this price that sits so flat, and the drum-shaped case with its sheer sides is pure Bauhaus geometry: a cylinder and four lines.
The typography is the reason the design has lasted since 1992. Slim numerals with a slightly rounded geometry, set with generous spacing. Blued hands, long and fine, that reach their markers exactly. The small seconds at six has its own tiny minute track and sits in a recess that's barely there. Look at it closely and you realise nothing has been placed casually.
Then there's colour, or rather the lack of it. The dial is a soft, slightly warm silver, the print is black, and the only colour on the whole watch is the blue of the hands. Blued steel against silver is an old combination, but here it does real work: the hands are the one thing on the dial that isn't monochrome, so your eye finds them first. It's the trick a good wayfinding system uses, one accent colour reserved for the thing you most need to see.
It isn't flawless. 30 m means you'll take it off before the washing-up. The Alpha movement's 43-hour reserve is adequate rather than generous, and hand-winding every day is a commitment that some people find charming for a fortnight and then resent. The 19 mm strap fitting is a small irritation.
At 2,100 to 2,300 dollars, rivals include the Junghans Max Bill (cheaper, nearly as good), the Stowa Antea (cheaper again, a bit plainer) and the Longines Tuxedo if you want something more traditional. The Tangente is the one that gets the proportions most right.
If you want sport, date or bracelet, it's the wrong watch. If you want one watch for most of your adult life and you work at a desk, it may well be the right one.