BEHIND THE DESIGN
A blog style look at the MHD Design process
At MHD, we make automotive designed watches with a unique engineered design aesthetic . All our watches are designed by automotive and watch designer Matthew Humphries, who draws on his car design background for influence.
October 14th
Project 2021 dial design update.
The latest design development has focused on the dial design and colour ways options and you guessed it we want your feedback to decide which options to go with.
Please let us know what you think. All feedback will be put into the design pot so be brave and email us your thoughts at
matthew@mhdwatches.com
Option 1, Steel and black dial.
- Steel centre dial
- Black outer dial with chrome lower dial markers
- Chrome baton hands and power reserve dial hand, chrome second hand.
- Steel chapter ring with blue markers
Option 2, Black with steel dial.
- Black centre dial
- Steel outer dial with black lower dial markers
- Chrome baton hands and power reserve dial hand, chrome second hand
- Black chapter ring with white markers
Option 3, All steel dial.
- All steel dial.
- Steel outer dial with machine blue lower dial markers
- Machine blue baton hands and power reserve dial hand, machine blue second hand
- Steel chapter ring with blue markers
Option 4, Steel and grey dial.
- Grey centre dial
- Steel outer dial with machine blue lower dial markers
- Machine blue baton hands and power reserve dial hand, chrome second hand
- Grey chapter ring with white markers
Option 5, Steel and Blue dial.
- Sun ray blue centre dial
- Steel outer dial with machine blue lower dial markers
- Chrome baton hands and Machine blue power reserve dial hand. Chrome second hand
- Blue chapter ring with white markers
Option 6, Black dial.
- Sun ray Black dial
- Chrome lower dial markers
- Chrome baton hands and power reserve dial hand. Red second hand
- Black chapter ring with white markers
14th September 2020
In July we started our next watch design project. Project 2021. The idea was to expose our design process with you and get your feedback on the design, so you can help design our next watch.
We started with 3 design themes taking automotive influence from the 1930's 50's and 70's which can see below.
After receiving a huge amount of feedback on the designs there was one clear winner. The 1930's. The design has now been developed into cad which are the images you see here today. After your feedback the decision was taken to incorporate a round dial whilst keeping the cushion case shape with streamliner fins.
Please let us know what you think. All feedback will be put into the design pot so be brave and email us your thoughts.
July 23rd
Over the last three weeks we have launched a new design theme each week for our Project 2021. This is our third and final theme from the 1970's. A challenging period in automotive design that threw away the rule book to make wide and low angular concept cars, such as the Stratos, that even today look like they are from out of this world.
So its your last time to vote and make comments.
The 1930's, 1950's or 1970's, which will be our next watch produced? Remember this is just the start of the design process that we will be sharing with you all the way to production here on our "behind the design blog".
July 16th
Last week we released our first design theme from the 1930's. Over the next two weeks we will be releasing two more 'theme sketches' influenced from different periods in time.
Week two is the 1950's Disco Volante. Taking influence from British and Italian racers that were seeking the highest speeds possible with their smooth bodywork and organic forms. At the end of the month one design theme will be picked and the design process exposed weekly here and through our social media.
Please let us know what you think. All feedback will be put into the design pot so be brave and email us your thoughts.
matthew@mhdwatches.com
July 9th,
Over the next 3 weeks, we will be releasing a design each week showing a 'theme sketch' influenced from a different period in time.
Week 1 is the 1930's, taking influence from pre-war streamliner design. A period that was all about speed, aerodynamics and looking to the future.
At the end of the month one design theme will be picked and the design process will be exposed weekly through our behind the design blog and social media.
Please let us know what you think. All feedback will be put into the design pot so be brave and email us your thoughts.
matthew@mhdwatches.com
1st July 2020
Can you help us design our next watch?
The global pandemic has delayed and slowed down projects everywhere including our next watch release the Type 1, coming soon!
This hasn't stopped us but it has given us some time to start our a new watch project. In fact it’s given us an idea. We are going to be transparent with our next design process and share it with you over the coming weeks and months here on our 'Behind the design' blog and social media channels. At the moment the brief is wide open. We want your ideas, comments and feedback. What are your watch preferences?
To kick things off, check out this time lapse concept sketch off a modern automotive designed watch with the MHD Design DNA. We look forward to your feedback, via email and social media posts, contact me any time. matthew@mhdwatches.com
The MHD Type 1 watch coming soon! Check out exclusive content by clicking here.
How it's done in 20 seconds
In parallel, the same design process is used today for our MHD Watches (see below an early MHDSA2 sketch), where we start with hand drawn sketches, before we progress forward into to the cad modelling stage, where data is then used to build a watch.
Even though our MHD watches are smaller in scale to cars, we take just as much time and effort in our design process. It is the attention to detail that makes a product successful, no matter what the scale.
Each MHD Watch design goes through a specification stage, where we pick just the right colours and finishes to compliment the design. There are hundreds of options tried before the final colour ways are selected. This spec page is from the SA2 launch edition design.
We take design influence from all parts of the automotive world to create an engineered design aesthetic. The SA2 design sketch above starts to explore how the three part case works together, and looks at different influences and finishes from some of our favourite vehicles.
After the sketch stage comes the sketch model development stage. This was an early sketch cad model for the SA2, where there can be a long process of changes to make the watch functional, ergonomic and aesthetically pleasing.
As the sketch process develops, the sketch detail improves and because of this the form and volume development improves. These Sketches were a design concept for the SA2 case design.
This is a cad sketch model for the SA2. This design was rejected as it didn't keep to the original design intension of having a lightweight looking outer case shape.