nathan george horwitt designed the single gold dot synonymous with the movado watches.
nathan george horwitt designed the single gold dot synonymous with the movado watches.
who designed the single gold dot synonymous with the movado watches?
nathan george horwitt
as part of an effort to combat japanese watchmakers, grinberg invested in ultrathin quartz watches, culminating in 1980 with the concord delirium iv, which at 0.98 millimeters thick was the first watch thinner than one millimeter.









































after acquiring the movado in 1983, the firm was renamed the movado group. under grinberg, movado heavily promoted the "museum watch" a modernistic markless black face with a single gold dot at the 12 o'clock position based on a design by nathan george horwitt in the collection of the museum of modern art, selling millions of the watches in dozens of different versions.
gedalio grinberg
influenced by bauhaus, the watch dial has a very simple design defined by a solitary dot at 12, symbolizing the sun at high noon. this makes it difficult to accurately distinguish the time. it was first made by an american importer of swiss watches called "vacheron & constantin-lecoultre watches inc." (not the swiss watchmaker vacheron constantin), and later produced by movado. horwitt's dial was selected for the permanent design collection of the museum of modern art, new york, in 1960, the first watch dial awarded this distinction. movado finally settled with horwitt in 1975 with a payment of $29,000 ($128,000 in 2015 dollars). following horwitt's death, movado started heavy promotion of horwitt and the design of the museum watch. photographer edward steichen called horwitt's design "the only truly original and beautiful one for such an object". the single dot dial now appears in many of movado's timepieces.
movado