charlotte van der waals' world watches indicate multiple time zones

charlotte van der waals’ world watches indicate multiple time zones
the ‘waals world watch ABS’
all images courtesy of charlotte van der waals

with an aim to ‘blend shape, construction, and material into perfect visual unity, resulting in products that radiate self-evident quality,’ charlotte van der waals presented two designs for her series of ‘world watches’.

each line represents 10 minutes

the first, called ‘waals world watch ABS’ , features an injection moulded, hard plastic body coated in black. around its perimeter, rigid intersections divide 12 smooth sides that are decorated with the names of two major cities. each of the pairings differ by 12 hours to indicate any time of day. for example, new york is embedded into the surface alongside jakarta to represent AM and PM respectively. altogether, 24 cities total represent the 24 global timezones.

the ‘waals world watch RVS’

as opposed to the matte black body of the ABS, the designer has also developed a solid stainless steel version of 4 cm by 4 cm called the ‘waals world watch RVS’. similar to its relative, names of recognizable metropolises are once again laser engraved into its cylindrical alloy enclosure. to find the local time in a desired area, users must turn the clock so that the city representing the time zone is at the top. this enhances the legibility of the face, as each line is equivalent to 10 minutes. furthermore, if users are still having trouble discerning the time of day, van der waals explains that AM and PM are distinguished by the rhyme, ‘in the west the time is less, in the east time increases.’

the steel body uses a locking system to secure the desired time zone

packaging of the watches

designboom has received this project from our ‘DIY submissions‘ feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.