Meistersinger watches have a distinct appearance when it comes to comparing their designs against other luxury Swiss watches on the market. Crisp, clean lines and a single hand centrally mounted onto the dial promotes an unusual, relaxed and simple way to read the time. The company was founded in the year 2001 by Manfred Brassler, a man with a very basic yet revolutionary idea. The clear layout of a Meistersinger dial owes itself to the ingenuity of this gentleman’s design concept who had already gathered the expertise and skill acquired when establishing his first watch brand as well as his experience as a jeweller in Munich. When it came to establishing the Meistersinger brand, however, a timekeeping idea from the early days of measuring time was all that was needed to bring this company to life.
In an industry where hundreds of watch manufacturers struggle to stand out from the crowd, Meistersinger’s simple timekeeping idea stripped things back to basics in a bid to invent a timepiece that conveyed a sense of originality and authenticity. The instruments would concentrate on the essentials and in doing so, exude a purist look upon the wrist.
Inspired by timekeeping concepts like the hourglass and the sundial, these tools used a simple and primordial design to measure time, a method that Meistersinger endeavoured to reinvent. Brassler not only built the brand from the ground up but made his own wristwatches designed on said sundials and tower clocks of a bygone era. The readability of a Meistersinger watch has won the company many an award. Not only is the atelier a 6 time winner of the Red Dot Design award but it also won the WatchPro's Watch of the year award in 2014 for their Neo Q design.
Each wristwatch from the manufacturer’s catalogue is completed with either a single or automatic movement. The brand’s logo was inspired by a music note and the name itself was taken from a group of civil poets and singers. In 2014 the brand began planning its own in house movement. It would take a further two years to launch the movement, which boasted twin mainspring barrels. The MSH01 movement had an impressive 120 hour power reserve. Movements to follow included the MSH02, and MSA01 calibre which received three awards in addition to the MSH01 winning the German Design Award prior to this.
Plans for Meistersinger’s Singulator movement were underway in 2008. The central hand in this case became an hour reader as opposed to the traditional single, centrally mounted Meistersinger minute hand. The brand’s column wheel brand was launched 6 years later, followed by the Adhaesio in 2015. The Salthora models in 2016 were equipped with “jumping hour” technology, making way for the Lunscape in 2018 with a central moon phase feature that lasts over 100 years.
Despite Meistersinger’s ever growing collection of timeless instruments, the original N°01 Meistersinger watch has remained a much loved classic. With a single hand pointing to one unique moment in time, its crisp and clean design is as stylish today as it was when it first launched. The N°03 automatic version is considered an icon within the range also, with an unmistakable design that combines Swiss know-how with cutting edge precision.
