By Jovan Krstevski
The German watchmaker Meistersinger recently released a new watch called Metris with blue, black, opaline silver, and ivory dial in a 38 mm steel case.
Meistersinger became popular for its single-handed watches. The brand continues to offer interesting concepts and complications that reflects the original idea. While the brand also offers more than one hand, the style that separates Meistersinger from other watchmakers is ever present. As such, the current Metris features the trademark needle-point, that marks the single central hour hand concept of the watch. If you to know how read time on this watch, please read on.
These past years, Meistersinger released more complicated pieces, but this timely release of the Metris hints that the brand remembers its roots. We saw complicated timepieces like the Meistersinger Salthora Meta X emphasizing on the classics. The new Metris is a powerful package in terms of style and innovation and personally, this is the only iteration of single-handed watch that I like.
The new Metris features vintage look and feel with a subtle contemporary style. Here we have a classic case at 38 mm wide but it appears larger because of the elongated shape and integrated lugs, like the cool sports watches in the 1970s. The steel case also features a curved central case band with a combination of brushed and polished finish. I like the crown guards giving a bit more of meat at this small frame. Some finishing touches worth noting is the date aperture at 6 o’clock covered by a domed sapphire crystal with a Cyclops lens for enhanced clarity. Cyclops is not for everyone’s liking but honestly, it works for this watch. The 200 m water resistance of the Metris is also a good selling point, perfect for those unplanned weekend escapades.
The four variations of the dial have one thing in common, a white date wheel. The choices are opaline silver, ivory, black and dark blue dial with a beautifully crafted textile NATO-style strap. I like the contrasting set of hands and markers for each dial color so you really have to be precise on what reflects more to your liking. The black dial Metris, for example, has a black central hand, white markers and text, and a red-on-white date wheel – a sporty combination of sorts. Note that the double-digit hour markers and the central needle-point hour hand are signatures of a Meistersinger theme.
Powering the watch is a Swiss made ETA 2824–2 modified to run Metris’ single-handed operation. This reliable movement runs for 38 hours straight at full wound.
Finally, single-handed watches are very easy to read once you get used to them and this yields to a kind of pride, not everybody can read time this way, trust me. The key is the 12-hour dial is divided by 144 markers and each marker represents 5 minutes so when the single-hand points to 10+3 bars, then that’s 10:15.
Finally, retail is approximately $1,750. For more info, visit MeisterSinger online.
