We take trades against any of our watches!!! We also buy watches and watch packages.
MeisterSinger is singularly known for its singular display of time – that is, the fact that there is only one hand indicating the time on the dial. The brand successfully executes this concept by designing dials with an arithmetical, almost gauge-like rendition of hours and minutes. By bringing Benjamin Franklin's design to fruition in a wristwatch, MeisterSinger highlights the minimalist practicality of a single-handed dial on a bold level.
MeisterSinger is singularly known for its singular display of time – that is, the fact that there is only one hand indicating the time on the dial. The brand successfully executes this concept by designing dials with an arithmetical, almost gauge-like rendition of hours and minutes. You needn’t look further than the Circularis to understand MeisterSinger’s timekeeping model.
While we were pleasantly surprised when MeisterSinger added extra resolution to one of their pieces by using a jump-hour function, MeisterSinger has switched gears again (pun intended) and has released a watch that removes resolution from an already minimalist display.
The MeisterSinger USA Benjamin Franklin Watch is a reproduction of a simple, but curious design created by Ben Franklin. This might be as strange to read as it is to write, but I feel that MeisterSinger is the only brand that can attempt this watch and, to an extent, escape unscathed. I’m not a clock-aficionado/historian by any means, so I can only produce two reasons as to why I think this is the case (learned readers and clock-enthusiasts are encouraged to enrich my hypothesis through comments).
Franklin developed this clock-concept with his friend James Ferguson, a Scottish astronomer and instrument maker who even published the design in his work Select Mechanical Exercises, circa 1733
Given that Franklin and his peers were globetrotters, and members of various European societies for academia and science, I’m theorizing that their publications and concepts were well communicated throughout their travels and within assemblies of other inventive intellectuals at the time. His clock-concept seems to have caught on in Germany for about a century – my guess would be that in addition to being an economical assembly, the region has a thing for simple functionality, and it doesn’t get much simpler than three wheels and a couple of pinions.
Ferdinand Schade notes the “Franklin-clock” in his Uhrmacherlexikon (Clockmaker's Dictionary) as late as 1855, and there seem to have been quite a few productions of it by German manufacturers in the 18th century.
Name a manufacturer, besides MeisterSinger, that can introduce a single-handed, über-simple edition-piece and have it be relevant historically, regionally and brand-wise? You can’t. One-handed clocks were actually pretty standard and commonplace until the pendulum laid the necessary groundwork for precision in the 17th century. Franklin’s design tries to do more by doing even less – a very MeisterSinger mantra.
The perimeter of the dial divides 240 minutes into four collections of 60. The single hand will span a quadrant’s distance every hour. Each quadrant represents three hours. The first represents 12, 4 and 8 o’clock (XII, IIII and VIII) the second represents 1, 5 and 9 o’clock and so on and so forth. As expected, the hand will rotate around the dial once every four hours.
Now for the obvious question; if each quadrant represents three hours, how does one know what precise hour it is? The answer is that, well, you don’t know the precise hour. The Franklin-dial only displays the hour to within the three designated hours of any particular quadrant. It is up to you to have an idea of the time of day so that is can correspond with one of three hours in that quadrant.
Yes, you’re right, this concept completely redefines reading a dial and makes both daylight and twilight to be necessary gauges of time! Is it practical? No, it isn't really. And acclaimed Franklin biographer Carl Van Doren agreed, when he wrote that “Franklin invented a curious clock, economical but not quite practical, which a new friend, James Ferguson, improved in 1758 to Franklin’s generous satisfaction.”
But, let’s not be too hard on Dr. Franklin. He was likely just trying to democratize timekeeping for American colonists with an economical three-wheel train And he did give us other practical things, like daylight savings time, the odometer and even the selfie stick, which Franklin originally called a “long-arm” and used to grab out-of-reach books on the top shelf.
Like I’ve said in the past, all dials grow easier to read with time and practice. But that’s not the point here – at least I don’t think. The point may very well be that, given its niche, MeisterSigner likely is the only brand that can execute this limited edition in the present day.
Only 70 of pieces of the MeisterSinger USA Benjamin Franklin Limited Edition will be made - price is set at $5,599. A portion of the proceeds will go to the Benjamin Franklin Museum in Philadelphia.
What a very cool & unique Timepiece! Complete Set originally purchased Dec 2023 - Original Purchase receipt included!!
BRAND: MEISTERSINGER
MODEL: Benjamin Franklin Limited Edition #05/70
MOVEMENT: Swiss – Mechanical - Manual Wind
CASE: Stainless Steel
CROWN: Push/Pull Crown
SIZE: 43mm
LUGS: 20mm
DIAL: White 4 quadrant Limited Edition Dial
BEZEL: Non-rotating
CONDITION: Pre-Owned - Excellent - original Purchase Date 12/2023
BOXES/PAPERS: Yes/Yes: Meistersinger Box set with watch, Limited Edition Cert, Purchase Receipt, etc - Everything as shown in pictures!
WATER RESISTANCE: – 50m
STRAP/BRACELET: – Original Meistersinger Brown/Tan alligator Leather strap with Meistersinger Steel Tang buckle.
Trades welcome!!
We buy similar watches...large packages as well as one at a time. We also take trades against any of our watches...
Let us know what you have in your collection!!
I consider all watches in trade! Please upload pictures of your trades through the eBay message system! I will only complete deals here through eBay to protect both buyer and seller!
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Norm
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Please note: All watches are mechanically sound and the pictures are of the exact watch you will receive. Returns will only be accepted as a store credit towards another watch that is in stock. Store credit can be used for up to 3 months from time of return if you do not see a watch in stock that you like.