For those intrigued by the mysterious principles of design that separate inspired watches from the pedestrian kind, Seiko’s Prospex Kinetic Chronograph presents a fascinating and challenging puzzle.

How in the world did its creator, Akihiko Yamamoto of the Seiko Watch Design Center in Tokyo, ever arrive at this brilliant, unlikely, and perplexing arrangement of forms? With no obvious “main dial” anywhere to be found, we have a collection of disparate, asymmetrical, overlapping subdials whose layout manages to be visually absorbing and conceptually opaque at the same time. Like a dense jazz improvisation, the design builds up layers of harmonic riffs that are easy to groove on but hard to unravel.

What makes Yamamoto’s creation a winning design, despite its radical and offbeat sensibilities? That’s the topic I’d like to explore for the exciting launch of GMT+9. Doing so will require some visual tools that have greatly enriched my own understanding of watch design, but may be unfamiliar. Because they are commonly available and easy to use, but largely overlooked by the internet discussion forums, I’m going to spend some time demonstrating and discussing them too. Whether you buy my theory about the Kinetic Chronograph or not, I hope you will discover a new avenue for appreciating watches that can bring many hours of enjoyment when applied to your own favorites.

The Core Framework

The dimensions of the dial and the case constrain many subsequent choices in any watch design. Here I’ve drawn two concentric circles that circumscribe the Kinetic Chronograph’s outer perimeter and its dial. It is gratifying to discover that the crown and pushers conform precisely to a circular path, despite their different shapes. Two yellow 90° bisectors define the principal N-S and E-W axes, and their intersection locates the center of the universe. The overlay makes clear what isn’t so obvious in person—the physical center of the dial lies in open space, with nothing attached to it. This unforeseen development creates a cascade of visual surprises and cognitive double-takes. On first viewing, the immediate challenge is to locate the main time keeping hands, which don’t reside on a central pillar as traditional horology prescribes. After we find them, and reconcile ourselves to their unconventional subordinate position, we infer by default that the chronograph’s prominent seconds hand must have taken their place. But, no, this isn’t right either. The sweep seconds hand pivots above of the center of symmetry on a large circular bulb, tracing out an area that is decidedly off-center. These surprises all contribute to an unsettled first impression that gradually crystallizes into a startling ambiguity. Is the dial round or isn’t it? Our engrained expectations tell us, “Yes, of course.” But doubts creep in when the whole ensemble begins to appear stretched and elongated (a very strong impression in person).

At this point, you may be wondering whether the Kinetic Chronograph isn’t treading on thin ice. By defying convention so aggressively, and in more ways than one, it provokes an edgy, even dissonant psychological response. And like all avant-garde designs, it forces you to decide whether its breaches of traditional practice are legitimate or half-baked?

What I want to show you next is how Yamamoto’s stark departures from tradition actually manifest a strong classical sensibility and a refined geometric formalism that belie our first impressions and natural concerns. Like other great avant-garde works, the Kinetic Chronograph defies convention, not for the sake of surprise and disorientation, but to create new opportunities for expressing basic aesthetic truths.

The 10-2 Generator

In the overlay above, notice how two additional bisectors anchored at 10 o’clock and 2 o’clock establish the axes of the chronograph pushers. This arrangement is highly classical, and ubiquitous among analogue chronographs (albeit with many slight variations and occasional major departures like the “bullhead” design). Taken together, the four bisectors define the orientation of the crown, the pushers, and the large seconds hand, forming slices of 30, 60, and 120 degrees. Needless to say, these angles resonate on the fundamental frequencies of watchmaking, since the 360° dial is divided into 12 hour segments. Of special importance here are the red “virtual hands” at 10 and 2 o’clock. They closely approximate the iconic “watchmaker’s time,” universally considered the most beautiful position for a watch’s hands, and one of the most enduring motifs in horological history. From now on, I’m going to call these virtual hands the 10-2 Generator, for reasons that will soon become apparent.

To sum up the investigation so far, let’s isolate the basic skeletal frame of the Kinetic Chronograph. How interesting that the puzzling complexities of the finished work rest upon such a traditional and orderly foundation!

The Main Clock Subdial

Once you’ve decided to move the principal clock from its normal location, the question is where to put it. The next display explains the size and position of the main clock subdial, using the 10-2 Generator as our geometric Rosetta Stone.

By displacing the Generator to the South Pole of the dial, and projecting its two virtual hands outward until they intersect the (full) dial’s perimeter, we discover an eye-opening result. The yellow ray connecting the two intersections defines the E-W axis of the main clock subdial. Moreover, the yellow ray’s intersection with the principal N-S axis fixes its center. To complete the elegant construction, the central E-W axis is tangent to the subdial’s perimeter and thereby establishes its radius. The main clock subdial is a direct geometrical expression of the spare classical building blocks in the core framework. Wow! That is nice. And how gratifying to discover, after some further poking around, that the distance from the center of the main clock to the South Pole also describes the (inner) diameter of the main seconds subdial. In this way, all of the main time keeping functions are unified.

We now understand the basic secret of the Kinetic Chronograph’s design. What initially appear to be “breaches” of traditional practice are really manifestations of enduring horological motifs, like the 10-2 Generator, rendered with great subtlety and artistic depth. To see another example, let’s consider the vexingly oblique tachymeter subdial, which records elapsed seconds after the chronograph’s pleasantly “mechanical” upper pusher is engaged.

The Elapsed Seconds Tachymeter Dial

Understanding the layout of the tachymeter subdial, including its oversized diameter and perplexing off-axis location presents an interesting psychological and intellectual puzzle. Its offset position not only propels the “elongation effect” described earlier, but causes the pronounced overwriting of the tachymeter scale on the main clock’s subdial. It’s a design choice that in many ways seems inexplicable, other than vaguely reflecting a desire to create a watch whose first application will be timing rather than time keeping. That its main features can be accounted for by our classical Rosetta Stone therefore comes as another major surprise. The figure below shows how, taking earlier discoveries as the point of departure.

First, let’s attach another 10-2 Generator to the centerpost of the main clock subdial. The virtual hands eventually intersect two established quantities—the central E-W axis and the full dial’s perimeter. I’ve added two blue rays that connect these points of intersection. The upper blue ray determines the center of the circular bulb that carries the large seconds hand (where it crosses the main N-S axis). This bulb defines the center of the tachymeter subdial, and establishes its mysterious location just north of the true center of symmetry. At the same time, the shorter blue ray defines the perimeter of the subdial, and thereby it radius. So we’re done. The tachymeter dial is a second generation offspring of the 10-2 Generator.

The Lesser Subdials

Explaining the configuration of the small seconds dial and chronograph minutes register presents a number of interesting puzzles that I still can’t claim to understand fully. They become apparent when you attach a third 10-2 Generator to the centerpost of the tachymeter subdial— pursuing what seems to be the next logical move. Unfortunately, doing so causes more confusion than revelation and leaves you wondering whether a promising theory is really true. The basic trouble is that the 10-2 axes of the tachymeter dial don’t align with the 10-2 axes of the minor subdials and you’re left with a series of unresolved issues, including the locations of the minor subdials’ centers.

Instead, the third 10-2 generator really prefers to be located further north of center in the tach dial’s large bulb, as shown in the picture below.

Doing so causes the new virtual hands to line up on both of the minor subdials’ centerposts, a sure sign of progress. But why would one choose this odd, non-concentric location for the third generator? One possible clue lies in our earlier discovery about the diameter of the main seconds dial. When we investigate whether the distance between the generators has any significance, more pieces of the puzzle fall into place.

We can see that several diameters of the minor subdials (both inner and outer diameters) match the distances of the generators from each other and from the poles. Surely we’re on to the basic idea that establishes the position of the third generator, but we’re left with a chicken and egg problem. How did the third generator reach this beautiful position, before the minor subdials’ (outer) diameters were known? That’s a puzzle I’ll leave for you to mull over, in hopes you’ll enjoy the challenge of figuring out this complex dial as much as I have.

Closing Observations

Though much more could be written about this fascinating timepiece, I think we’ve learned enough to appreciate what makes the Kinetic Chronograph an exceptional work of design. It displays conceptual brilliance, aesthetic harmony, and psychological depth that few other watches can muster.

If you enjoyed our investigation, and would like to learn more about how it was done, please check out the methods appendix below.

For stunning images of the Kinetic Chronograph, you can visit the fabulous “Launchpad” of uber-collector and master photographer, SteveG. There you will learn more about the intricate finish work and innovative movement that make the Kinetic Chronograph a landmark of Japanese horology. In fact, if you pause to study the front page of the Launchpad, I think you will be impressed by how well the Kinetic Chronograph travels in highly distinguished company. Japanese watch design has achieved levels of refinement that even Europhile collectors are beginning to notice and admire, and you can see why.

For more information about the international design competition that produced the Kinetic Chronograph, and its role in Seiko’s strategic plans, see “The Future of Seiko,” WatchTime (October, 2003).

Methods Appendix

To create the images discussed above, I imported a jpeg photo of my Prospex Chronograph into Adobe Illustrator and placed it in the base layer. Subsequent layers each contain a different design element—the dial’s circumference, the 90° bisectors, the 10-2 Generator, and many more. Lines, circles, and shapes are easy to create using basic drawing tools, but not by measuring angles, distances, and locations as a draftsman might do. Instead I produce the graphical elements by tracing over the photograph below, using one-to-one overlays to achieve (relatively good) accuracy. For example, two hash marks on the dial unambiguously define the N-S bisector, and then become anchor points for the line tool. Duplicating the bisector’s layer and rotating the N-S ray in 30° increments generates the other bisectors, and confirms the hypothesis that the pushers align on the 10 o’clock- 2 o’clock axes (something not really obvious without 10 or 2 o’clock markers on the dial).

The basic moves of anchoring, duplicating, translating, superimposing, and comparing are powerful tools for isolating subtle features in the underlying design. And by turning the layers on and off in various combinations, one can isolate important structures from the complex whole.

Without using sophisticated tools like Illustrator, it would be well nigh impossible to figure out a complicated design like the Kinetic Chronograph’s. But the techniques demonstrated above are extremely enlightening even when applied to “simple” designs. The more you look, the more you see!

This entry was posted on Monday, January 15th, 2007 at 3:01 pm and is filed under Seiko. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.