A good decision
My 40mm UNO24 has been a friend for 10 years, the one day dial is perfect for our day and as far as I can tell one of the few examples implemented in a thoughtfulway, and the right way up!
With great eye sight perhaps my UNO24 is perfect.
With naturally age-degrading short sight being common to most people at a certain age, perhaps perfection is subjective.
I find myself at that age after 10 years of enjoying the UNO24. I can only read it with reading glasses.
It unhappily spent most of its recent months in the desk drawer. That’s a shame.
A wrong substitute
As a regular jogger I also use a Garmin Fenix, my only other watch (I do not understand the point of collecting them) and I find myself wearing the Fenix everyday because I can no longer read my nearly perfect watch. And back to square one we go. All the weight and complications that do not serve my day.
Everyday the Fenix tells me the date and the day. The next sunrise or sunset, even the barometric pressure. How many steps i have done, my heart rate, and of course the time!
The computer has the family calendar and there is also one on the kitchen wall.
Why do I care when sunset is? I don’t, i just enjoy it if i see it.
If I could be bothered to study the sunrise/sunset times I would have forewarning that the equinox has passed and we are either onwards to shorter or longer days.
I don’t need that either.
I know after Christmas I can enjoy ever longer days. Wasn’t that the point of the winter festivals for many thousands of years?
After the summer we harvest and prepare for the gloomy days. Why does it need to be more scientific for an individual? That thought of old natural synchrony with nature is a nice one.
I try to jog regularly. What more can i do to stay ahead of an untimely death, Good diet, I don’t smoke or drink so what else am i prepared to do? 10,000 steps every day? Develop anxiety every time my resting heart rate seems a bit high? Uurgh! No. i’m not prepared to do anything else. I just want to chill and enjoy my days.
The "anxiety strap"
Some people even wear a fitness tracker. Or should that particular product be called the Anxiety strap!
Have a walk or jog, what more is there to do? And if you do what’s the point of an anxiety strap? The ugly plastic anxiety strap isn’t beautiful and it certainly isn’t helpful. A daily walk or a jog is surely the answer.
So the Fenix has gone in the drawer. It only comes out for a jog or a paddle on the kayak. Its rightful purpose and i’m happy to have it with me when I exercise.
The Fenix has now found its correct place and purpose. It doesn’t belong on my wrist for the rest of the day. The desk drawer is more than happy to look after it and more importantly so am I.
Return to UNO
But I missed having a nice watch and a relaxed attitude to my own time so I retrieved the UNO24 from the drawer and gave it some thought. It had stopped!
Why did I buy it 10 years ago?
It was the best implementation of what I wanted.
A nice reliable watch that fulfilled only its correct purpose. It was different to the mainstream but that wasn’t the reason. The reason was the mainstream seemed overly gaudy everywhere i looked.
Having always been of the opinion that if it isn’t beautiful or useful why is it?
Beauty and purpose
It’s a question that needs to be asked more often. In my work of aviation engineering it is not asked enough. I love those dials and instruments that do one job and do it well. Like a depth gauge on a submarine or an altimeter on an aircraft.
I cannot remember how I found Botta Design but i do remember thinking wow everything is there and everything that shouldn’t isn’t. Can it be beautiful and useful? I found out the answer to that!
Back to mechanics
Quartz watches are great if you need accuracy to +- 1 sec per day. I don’t and I suspect no one does. What use is that accuracy anyway when the battery dies with no warning every couple of years.
If only it were a bit bigger. Perhaps 12 hours rather than 24. Between 9pm and 7am I don’t generally use a watch….
So I thought I’d have a look to see if Botta Design still exist and the original UNO caught my attention and stayed as nagging thought in my head for days.
The 44mm UNO 12 Hour is a sublimely clever concept. It took me a while to realise that.
I have annoyingly easily irritated skin so titanium is great.
Having owned a Fenix for years I have learned the benefit of Sapphire crystal. Having tripped over on runs numerous times and scraped it on fences and such like it has not a single scratch on the glass.
With this in mind the reason the UNO is nagging in my head is becoming clearer. The materials are perfect.
Everything these days needs a battery or needs to be recharged. You never really know when it is going to run out of charge other than it will happen when you least want it to.
So I wanted to go back to the days when ingenious engineering produced mechanisms that are insanely accurate (for a bunch of cogs and springs) and require no more energy than I generate myself.
If I were to research watch movements to pick the perfect balance between reliability, accuracy, repairability and cost I don’t think you would find much better than a SW200.
That nagging is getting stronger.
Why the UNO stayed in my mind
So I find myself visiting the Botta website many times and wondering… I’m not wealthy but I am always prepared to invest time and money in something worthwhile.
There is something else about the UNO that talks to me but I can not figure out what.
It takes a while but the face is so reminiscent of days gone by. It looks like a pocket watch!
There are no shoulders and stubby legs. Which when you realise it you cannot not unsee it on all the other watches. The inverted lugs. It is ingenious. I cannot find this on any other watch.
It makes the watch look natural. It makes all other watches look like the design is not yet finished. A watch face should be round. Not have things extruding. It makes it more comfortable, more of the strap is doing its job.
It looks more like a dial. Simply beautiful.
When you see it you wonder why it isn’t more prevalent.
Design with personality
Beautiful materials, Beautiful design, Ingenious design.
The philosophical input that can only come from a small family is perhaps the intangible aspect of this watch. There is something i cannot label that is in this watch that calls to me.
Having grown up in a family business I think I have a clue but certainly not the answer. It has a personality that a factory product can never have.
A surprising decision
I also notice a trade in program. So the price is reduced to place that it should not be.
Total cost for a new UNO made from Titanium, with Sapphire crystal, with the ideal Swiss movement and a design that is just right in so many ways. £1000 or thereabouts. I think I would have been prepared to pay double at least.
One month later
After a month of constant wear i’m even happier with my decision than I was when it arrived.
I hope you found a good home for my old friend. It is no use to me as it was just too hard to read but I sincerely hope someone is enjoying it.
A look into the future
I notice that in 10 years you will hopefully be enjoying your 50th Anniversary of the UNO.
If i’m still able to read a watch I will look out for perhaps another good decision on my part. However I am very much doubtful that you will improve much on the UNO.
The UNO Automatic knows its purpose
It is a Beautiful object, simply pleasing to look at and touch. It is useful and knows it’s purpose so well.
Thank you.
Richard
