We all love microbrand watches, but let’s face it: when we think of watches, the first thing that comes to our mind is luxury watches. Those “serious” watches that only serious people can wear, from prestigious brands like Rolex, Audemars Piguet or Patek Philippe. They are everywhere on our social media feeds, making us feel envious or impressed. But luckily, there are also watches that don’t take themselves too seriously and that remind us that watches can be fun and playful. That’s the case of the new creation from Mr Jones Watches, which invites us to enjoy – A perfectly useless afternoon.
You might think that we made a typo in our first paragraph, but don’t worry – we didn’t. The watch is actually called A perfectly useless afternoon, and that name captures the cool vibes of this watch perfectly – no pun intended.
Mr Jones Watches – who exactly are you?
Mr. Jones Watches is a small and passionate team of watchmakers who work in a studio in London. They tell us that their mission is to create watches that stand out from the crowd. The folks at Mr. Jones Watches know that most people use their smartphones to check the exact time nowadays. That means that watches are less about functionality and more about creativity. They use this opportunity to make watches that are unique and fun. On their website, they say that they strive to offer original and intriguing designs, watches that don’t try to imitate Rolex, because let’s face it, Rolex already does a great job at making Rolex watches…
A perfectly useless afternoon
The creative mind behind this cool watch is Kristof Devos, a Belgian illustrator, designer and arts teacher. Devos has collaborated with Mr Jones Watches before, creating some cool looking watches like Enjoy The Ride, A Perfectly Useless Evening and A Perfectly Useless Morning.
The A Perfectly useless afternoon has a 37mm wide 316L stainless steel polished silver case. If you’re not sure what that means, Mr Jones Watches website explains that they measure the width of the watch from side to side, or from 3 o’clock to 9 o’clock. The size is described as Medium-Unisex, which is something we can totally agree with. the watch comes with single jewel quartz calibre.
Until now, you might think that this is just a normal watch. But when you take a closer look at the watch face, you’ll see what makes this watch and Mr Jones Watches so special. The watch face shows a swimming pool scene with a person relaxing on an inflatable ring. And there’s also a yellow duck, like the ones we used to play with in the bathtub. But that’s it. There are no hands on this watch, no hour hand, no minute hand and no second hand.
Mr. Jones Watches tells us that “The character lounging in the pool was created to inspire you to relax and to realise that time spent resting, is time well spent”.
So how do you read the time? well, it’s actually quite simple – The relaxed figure’s stretched leg shows the hour, while the tiny plastic duck floats around to show you the minutes. The watch has a clever design that uses the shape of the pool to tell the time. The edges of the pool are like the tiles that you see around a real pool, and they also serve as hour markers.
On the Mr Jones Watches website, Kristof reveals the inspiration behind this amazing design –
“Ironically, it took time to change the way I look at time. A couple of years ago, I read a quote by a Chinese writer, translator, linguist and philosopher Lin Yutang that I’ve kept close to my heart ever since:
‘If you can spend a perfectly useless afternoon in a perfectly useless manner, you have learnt how to live’.
So when designing this watch, I took that quote as a starting point.
The quote by Lin Yutang taught me the value of doing nothing at all every once in a while.
One of the ways I love wasting time is by floating around, with my eyes closed, letting the water be my guide.
The perspective of my illustration lets you dive into time.”
You might already be impressed by the design of the watch, but you’ll be even more surprised when you see its price. The watch is very affordable, only £195 with free shipping to UK, USA, Canada and Europe. The watch comes with a 18mm silver stainless steel bracelet.
If you like the watch, but you’re more excited about mechanical movements, Mr Jones Watches offers this watch in another version – A Perfectly Useless Afternoon Mechanical. This model comes with the same design, in a 40mm case with a STP-11 Swiss automatic movement. The mechanical version of the A perfectly useless afternoon is priced at £495.
For more information and buying the watch at Mr Jones Watches website.
