Norman Foster Designs His First Watch, With No Lugs and a Pilot's Bezels

Norman Foster has designed his first-ever watch, created with the brand Lebond, and the process, he says, was "very similar to architecture." The British architect, described by Dezeen as the most successful architect in history, approached the wristwatch the way he approaches a building: from first principles.

The Lebond Norman Foster is a mechanical watch with a 38.5-millimetre-wide Grade 5 titanium case that widens to 40 millimetres where it meets the integrated strap. The result is one continuous, streamlined object rather than two parts bolted together.

"We wanted to look again at something very familiar and reconsider it as a complete object, with the case, the strap, the dial and the movement all part of a system," Foster told Dezeen.

Why no lugs?

Foster dispensed with the traditional watch lugs — the projections that normally hold the strap — and wrapped the strap directly around the titanium case instead. It is the watch-world equivalent of removing a doorframe so the wall and doorway read as one surface.

"Normally, you have a watch case and then you attach a strap to it. We started to question the obvious. Why should they feel like two separate objects?" Foster said. "Once we began thinking of the strap as a continuation of the case, the whole watch started to come together."

The pay-off, he claims, goes beyond looks. "Removing the conventional lugs gave us the continuous profile, but it also made the watch more comfortable and more integrated," he explained.

What does the bezel do?

The watch nods to aviation, reflecting Foster's interest in flying and his history of international travel. That reference is functional, not decorative:

• A bidirectional rotating 12-hour bezel (a ring around the dial that turns both ways) lets the wearer read a second time zone using the main hour hand.
• The dial sits under a domed sapphire crystal with anti-reflective coating.
• The watch is water-resistant to 50 metres.
• A distinctive rotor, the oscillating weight that winds the movement, carries the aviation flavour.

Two editions, and more to come

The watch launches in two versions. The Natural Titanium Edition has a micro-sandblasted titanium case, a brushed-metal dial and a grey rubber strap. The Black Edition pairs a matte black DLC-coated (diamond-like carbon) titanium case with a black lacquered dial, black hands and a black rubber strap.

Customisation is built in. An easy attachment mechanism lets owners swap cases and straps, and more versions will be released over time. "A watch is intensely personal. You wear it, you travel with it and it becomes part of your everyday life," Foster said. "This led to the potential for a wide range of colour combinations and the ability to customise the watch."

He wanted one watch for every setting. "I proposed a watch that could move naturally between very different situations, working in the studio, being on a building site, travelling or going somewhere formal," he said. "It should not feel precious or limited to one particular setting."

Does scale matter to a designer?

Foster didn't find the leap from towers to timepieces daunting. "I have never really thought that scale changes the nature of design," he said. "Whether it is a city, a building, a chair or a watch, you are still asking the same questions: how does it work, how is it made, and how do all the parts come together?"

The method, he added, mirrors his studio practice: "It becomes one of refinement, sketches, prototypes, adjustments and then more adjustments. You explore options to finally arrive at the essential idea and then you keep refining it until everything seems inevitable."

Foster, who turned 90 last year, shows no sign of slowing the output. Next month he delivers the keynote speech at the Dezeen Awards party — presumably on time.