When talking about great watch designers, people tend to think of Gerald Genta, and I’m not saying that he is not important, but there are others.
In my book both Vianney Halter and Alain Silberstein are among the most innovative watch designers of our time. They are both so radically different that few have dared to follow and be inspired by them.

Vianney Halter is also a master watchmaker and makes the most incredible movements as well, which means that I will have to admire his work at a distance for now, until/if my financial situation changes.

Alain Silberstein is an industrial designer and that is what he is concentrating on. In later years he has done design work for MB&F and Louis Erard, but in his (now closed) eponymous brand he mainly uses standard movements, which means that for my wallet they are accessible. His take on Bauhaus is radically different than the watch brands we normally associate with the German design movement from the beginning of the last century. He emphasises on the colours (red, blue and yellow) at the shapes (square, triangle and circle) and let this govern his watch design.

Whether you like or hate his colourful watches is a matter of taste. I personally love them because they remind me of two artists that I got acquainted with in my childhood. My father was an artist and we often went to exhibitions. Two of the artists that made the biggest impression on me was Jean Tinguely and his incredible machines. If you go to Paris there is a water fountain near the Centre Pompidou designed by him (editor’s note: and the fantastic Niki de Saint Phalle). The other artist is Joan Miro and his bold use of colours. What I see when I look at an Alain Silberstein watch is the combination of the two.

His chronographs are big, chunky watches. The case is over 1.3 cm thick! They are a statement, not something you tug away discretely under the cuff. Some of them have the case coated in rubber, other in leather or PVD, but this is polished steel.

You hate it or love it. I love it.

Pros
12 hour chroonograph

Fantastic design

Makes you happy just looking at it

Cons
Thick as a brick

Difficult to read the seconds

At times problematic to read the dial

Quality
90

Style
100

Value
85

Wearability
88