Many people are fond of single-hand watches, and I can certainly understand the appeal. It is an extremely slick design with a lone hand spinning around the dial. That said, for people such as myself, you can end up losing a bit of precision in your time-telling, even if there is an accurate movement tucked away in the case. If that’s the camp you find yourself in, then the MeisterSinger Salthora may just be the solution for you.

As they put it, this is still a “typical” MeisterSinger, carrying their clean design and technical chops. The big twist to the MeisterSinger Salthora is the inclusion of a jump hour disc at the 12 o’clock position. To my way of thinking (and preferences), this is about as perfect of an implementation of a single-hand watch as I’ve seen. You still have the unique presentation that the single hand affords, and then you layer in another level of rarity with the jump-hour disc – all combined to create a watch that reads as accurate as the movement allows it to be.

Sure, uni-hand purists may cry foul, but that’s not what I’d consider myself. When it comes to a watch, I prize readability and functionality first and foremost. If things can be wrapped up in a visually intriguing package, well then, all the better in my book. The MeisterSinger Salthora also apparently has an audible component to it’s design as well. When the hour jumps, there’s an audible click. Not having seen one in person, I can’t speak as to how loud this is, but it’s another interesting bit of utility – potentially allowing you to know the time without even looking at your wrist.

This is all driven by the tried-and-true ETA 2824-2, albeit one that’s had some work done to it. If a disc was simply swapped in for the hour hand, we’d have something that slowly crept throughout the hour, which would not be a pleasing presentation. Instead, MeisterSinger developed a module for the movement that allows the disc to change over on the hour, snapping into place. This doesn’t impact the smoothness or accuracy of the movement itself, either. Power is “taken off” by means of a screw attached to the minute hand. With this, the tension builds up in a spring until it’s released, given the audio-visual change of the hour.

The MeisterSinger Salthora comes in a 40mm stainless steel case with four main variants. For the dials, you can choose between white, ivory, anthracite, or a particularly stunning sapphire blue; the calf leather strap is coordinated to the dial. While the white and ivory dials I think could make for rather nice work watches, and the anthracite for a dress piece, it’s really the blue dial and strap that stand out for me. It’s a shade that can easily bridge the gap between the work day and more refined settings, and just adds another detail to make the watch stand out even further. Regardless of the variant, you can pick up a MeisterSinger Salthora now for the price of $3,425. meistersinger.net

Tech Specs from MeisterSinger

• Model: Salthora
• Movement: ETA 2824-2 with jumping hour construction, 38-hour power reserve
• Case size: 40 mm
• Case: stainless steel, open casing back, water resistance 5 bar, sapphire glass
• Variants: white, ivory, anthracite, blue