MeisterSinger freshen up their single-handed offerings with a new bunch of tricks
Fergus NashAs soon as you come across MeisterSinger, their watches stay with you forever. The brand’s identity is strong and consistent in a way that few other watchmakers’ are, with their single-hand designs holding a monopoly over that specific niche. But this year, MeisterSinger have expanded some of their ranges with a focus on intimate design details.
Bell Hora
While the minute repeater is considered one of the holy grails of watch complications, MeisterSinger have created a similar experience at a price that won’t require you to sell your organs. The Bell Hora was introduced initially in 2021 using the ingenious MS Bell movement, adapted from a ubiquitous Sellita SW200 to chime at the beginning of every hour.
As time progresses and the movement beats away, it stores the power required to strike the gong and produces a deep, bell-like tone, albeit quite a staccato one. Although you can’t command the bell to ring whenever you’d like to hear it, you can prevent it from chiming by using the pusher at 2 o’clock to disengage that function. This way, you don’t need to lock it up in a safe to keep it from waking you every hour in the middle of the night.
The new version of the Bell Hora arrives in the reliably attractive black and gold colour scheme, with a bright white hand that brings both class and legibility. The hour markers are laid out in a spiral configuration, displaying the time in a 24-hour scale even though the hand travels the same as a regular 12-hour watch. The spiral themes continue with an etched line that runs around the dial, giving the whole watch even more of a mystical presence.
Given that the case is 43mm in diameter and has a lug-to-lug length of 49.5mm, this is definitely a watch that looks big on an average wrist. Especially considering the minimal bezel, the large dial surface demands a lot of attention. The esoteric nature of MeisterSinger is one that will provoke a love-it-or-hate-it attitude among most enthusiasts, so it’s quite likely that those who buy this watch won’t be afraid to show it off proudly.
| Case Material | Stainless Steel |
| Case Dimensions | 43mm x 49.5mm x 13mm |
| Water-Resistance | 50m |
| Dial | Black |
| Straps | Leather |
| Movement | MS Bell |
| Power Reserve | 38 hours |
| Complications | Hours, hourly chime |
| Price | 3,690 EUR |
Perigraph
MeisterSinger’s Perigraph is probably one of their easiest watches to like, with a perfect balance between simplicity and complexity. The Arabic numerals are all extremely easy to read, with no over-the-top typefaces to distract you from the time except for the printed “Perigraph” in a sophisticated script. The open date wheel transforms the dial into a sector arrangement, which helps it not look too sparse as some watches of this size can. It also adds a great deal of depth, leaving the printed text on its own island of black in the centre.
Where the newness comes into the Perigraph is with two new colour palettes, introducing some vibrant contrast into the outer minute track and the sunken date wheel. The first reference has an alluring shade of petrol blue, and the second is a deep Bordeaux red that already seems to be competing with green for colour of the year.
Through the sapphire display caseback, you can see the decorated Sellita SW200 movement that MeisterSinger have had lots of experience with. It provides a reliable 38 hours of power supply and has a beat rate of 28,800 vibrations per hour, even though the high-beat ticking won’t be visible without a seconds or even minutes hand. Although it has the same 43mm diameter as the Bell Hora, the lugs are a little longer at 51mm. This does make it much trickier to wear if you don’t have large wrists, although it does embody the same clock spirit that the single hand is honouring.
| Case Material | Stainless Steel |
| Case Dimensions | 43mm x 51mm x 11mm |
| Water-Resistance | 50m |
| Dial | Black and red, black and blue |
| Straps | Leather |
| Movement | SW200 |
| Power Reserve | 38 hours |
| Complications | Hours, date |
| Price | 1,890 EUR |
N°03 40mm
From both a style and size perspective, the N°03 40mm from MeisterSinger is their most wearable model. The layout would even look like a fairly traditional watch if it had two hands, but MeisterSinger would argue that their single-hand approach is even more traditional, paying tribute to timekeeping instruments even before the 18th century. The date window at 6 o’clock is perfect for the symmetry of the dial, but you still get a healthy dose of MeisterSinger quirky charm. If you were trying to convince someone with conservative tastes to get into the realm of weirder watches, the N°03 40mm is what you would show them.
The newest versions of the N°03 40mm add some intriguing details, the most noticeable being an angled chapter ring that shows the 30-minute mark for each hour on the dial. This doesn’t just make it easier to read the time with the singular needle hour hand, but it also creates a much broader sense of depth that the otherwise flat dial lacked. The other addition is a vegan leather strap with orange stitching that picks out the orange printed details on both the matte black dial version as well as the creamy white dial reference. The ivory dial also has a solid black hand that really stands out from a distance, making reading the time from a glance incredibly easy.
As with the other MeisterSinger watches we’ve covered, this N°03 40mm also uses the Sellita SW200 that can be seen through a sapphire-display caseback. These movements are incredibly versatile and easy to have serviced, just adding to the convenience and versatility of the N°03 40mm as a potential collection addition.
| Case Material | Stainless Steel |
| Case Dimensions | 40mm x 10.8mm |
| Water-Resistance | 50m |
| Dial | Black, ivory |
| Straps | Vegan leather |
| Movement | SW200 |
| Power Reserve | 38 hours |
| Complications | Hours, date |
| Price | 1,790 EUR |