In all honesty, Braun isn’t the first name you think of when talking about watches, or even German watches. And likewise, watches aren’t the first product you think about when you hear the name Braun either — although their coffee makers and electric razors are rather ubiquitous. While they were founded in 1921, the company didn’t release its first wristwatch until 1989, after Braun designer Dietrich Lubs decided that the cheap Japanese-made watches given out as thank you gifts to star clients weren’t sufficient. The result was the AW10, a minimal time-only watch, which was followed up two years later by the AW50, adding a date window and increasing legibility. This week, famed watch blog Hodinkee partnered with Braun on two new timepieces inspired by those original ‘80s and ‘90s models.
Limited to just 100 pieces each, the BN0279 Center Seconds and BN0279 Sub-Seconds sport the same design ethos as one another as well as Braun’s heritage products. Both watches eschew numerals in favor of a fairly-barren gray dial, save for the printed Braun logo, a stylized date window with the brand’s hallmark red chevron design, and, in the case of the latter model, a subdial. Instead, the time can be detailed on the white chapter ring, featuring 60 notches with bolded notches for the hour markers. The black hands are given white lumed tips, while the second hand on the Center Seconds variant is tipped with yellow.
The main difference with the Sub-Seconds variant is the addition of the small seconds subdial with white indices and the yellow hand, taking the place of the large yellow-tipped second hand on the Center Seconds model. Both watches are housed in 40mm bead-blasted stainless steel cases with 50m of water resistance. Affixed with rubber straps, they tick by with the same Swiss ETA 2892A2 automatic caliber movement, which is visible through the exhibition caseback.
Priced at $950 each, the BN0279 Center Seconds and BN0279 Sub-Seconds are currently available on Hodinkee’s shop, but, again, they’re limited to just 100 pieces, so act fast.
