Design · 5 min read
Inside the Auren 01
The 01 looks simple because every complicated decision was made before you see it. This is the anatomy of those decisions.
Start with the movement. We chose a Swiss quartz calibre, which will disappoint mechanical purists and delight everyone who wants the watch to show the right time. It runs eight years on a cell, needs no winding, and shrugs off shocks that would send a balance wheel to the watchmaker.
The case
Thirty-eight millimetres across and under ten thick, with lugs that curve down rather than out. The brushing is fine and directional; it scatters light instead of flashing it. The crown is small and unsigned on the end, because a crown is for winding, not branding.
The crystal is sapphire with anti-reflective coating on the underside only. Coating the top invites scratches in the coating itself, which is worse than a reflection. Details like this are invisible until they are not.
What we left out
No date window: it would have unbalanced the dial and added a failure point. No lume beyond the hands: this is not a dive watch and pretending otherwise would be costume. No text on the dial except the name, set small under twelve.
Simplicity is not the absence of decisions. It is decisions, finished.
