Step counters. Sleep tracking. Food logging. The list goes on. Can I get a watch that tells me the time and not the fact I hit 10,000 steps?minimalist watch online
We hear minimalism tossed around a lot in design circles. But, how many watch companies pull it off at a price point that isn’t absurd? Lehft is a Kickstarter campaign that takes minimalist luxury and removes the luxury price tag.I had a chance to speak with Kevin, founder of Lehft, to get the story behind the unique name and design.
”The original idea started with my love for minimal watches. Most
minimal watches on the market looked very similar with no real identity
they lacked distinguishable features. From there, I wanted to make
something a little different, something that had an instantly
recognisable feature in a minimal watch. Something left of centre and
away from the norm. That’s the primary reason for the name Lehft.
Secondly, the spelling was a slight play on words to give it an
identity.”
Watch collectors and aficionados have known that the
watch isn’t merely a way to tell time. It’s an extension of your
personality. How many times has a conversation been started thanks to a
unique watch?
Now ask the question with the numerous smartwatches hitting the market. I’m more likely to ask to tap out SOS on the Apple Watch than talk about the design. What? It’s the company’s fault for demoing the haptic feedback.
Elegant simplicity always wins in the battle style. The left of center symmetry here is perfection. Your eyes are drawn to it as soon as you see a Lehft watch.An area that grabs my attention when talking to designers is where do you draw the line? What gets left behind to stay true to minimalism? Kevin explained the process for Lehft’s first collection, and the symmetry the watch face draws:
”When designing a watch the possibilities for details are endless, and so designing an appealing minimal watch can sometimes be quite tricky. One of the main things I wanted was a minimal watch that could be recognised instantly, so we played around with the symmetrical halves. If you have a look, you can see that the strap edges align with the symmetrical halves, and the crowns sit perpendicular at the 4 o’clock position to balance it out. There were a few things we dropped like a date window and even thought about doing a chronograph.”
You can see in the comments people asking for a date window, but for the first collection, it makes sense to drop it. Looking at the product imagery, adding a date window would toss out the symmetry achieved in the design.
