With the concept “3 times 8 instead of day and night,” the dreizeit brand is taking a new approach to watch design. It all began with the insight that the division of traditional watches into 2 x 12 hours has little in common with the average rhythms of everyday life. Instead, life usually consists of 3 parts: work, leisure, and sleep. Here, work is not only to be understood as classic employment, but more generally as the rather “externally determined” time. In contrast to this is the more “self-determined” leisure time, and finally sleep. A balanced and healthy daily routine should keep the three parts in as much equilibrium as possible, with around 8 hours each.
“rest, labour, recreation”
As far as work is concerned, there has been the legally regulated 8-hour day for over a hundred years. We also encounter 8 hours in sleep: that is the average amount of time adults spend sleeping, and it also matches the recommendation of sleep research. That leaves 8 hours more or less at our free disposal. Unfortunately, this balance is often thrown off, so that in addition to work and externally determined time, leisure time is too short or is offset by too little sleep.
The dreizeit design therefore embodies the ideal: it represents the day through three cycles of 8 hours each. Each rotation of the hand symbolizes time that we spend, continuously or not, either at work, at leisure, or asleep. The dreizeit slogan “rest, labour, recreation” takes up the motto with which Robert Owen first called for the 8-hour day in Australia over 200 years ago.
dreizeit clocks are initially available as
wall clocks. The specially developed 8-hour movement is made in Germany, as are most of the other components used. The current collection includes three frameless models in Bauhaus design (Bauhaus No.1-3), a simple office clock (Office No.1), two more classically styled models with wooden frames (Classic No.1 and No.2), as well as a clock cut from stainless steel by laser (Lasercut No.1).
Reading the dreizeit clocks
Reading the clocks is easy, although it may seem a little unusual at first. Because of the three cycles, each hour appears three times and is shown by a 45° segment. On the 24-hour dial, each hour thus shares its position with two other times, each offset by 8 hours. As a single-hand concept, dreizeit does not use a minute hand. In the example shown here of a dial with a 5-minute index, it is 01:15, 09:15, or 17:15. To read the clock correctly, you only need to know whether it is night, morning, or afternoon.
