Playground Antics From Neuchatel – Introducing the Hautlence Labyrinth

No meetings to attend? No conference calls to dial-in to? No deadlines looming? Have I got the watch for YOU! Hautlence, of Neuchatel presents a “watch” for the person who has everything – including time. Here is the Hautlence Labyrinth.

The mind is a funny thing. By abstraction, life is a funny thing. Sometimes we work our hardest and focus ourselves so sharply that all we can ever do is fail. Sometimes we zone-out and let things happen and achieve our greatest accomplishments. I’m not advocating total abandonment of professionalism or preparation. What I am saying is that sometimes we need a little distraction to crop-up to the forefront of our brains to allow all of the data that we take in on a constant basis to sink in and mean something.

Thinking back to primary school. Lessons in primary school were not a constant stream of numbers and words that had to be memorized and repeated back instantly. The lessons I was taught had some fact based or numerical component – but there was a lot of theory too.  And all of it was punctuated by trips outside to the playground to run and play games. Those trips to the playground were as much about burning off excess energy in a classroom packed with antsy kids as it was about give our young minds time to digest everything we just saw.  Adults are not really any different than children. We have a lot LESS energy and need less running and jumping to be able to sit at a desk for an hour at a time, but our minds process new information the same way: we see it. We may or may not recognize it based on other things we’ve learned.  We need the opportunity for the gestalt to appear from the fog. Hautlence know this.

Hautlence, as I’ve already alluded to in pieces written about the brand’s creations, is itself a word-play… a game. They are a playful brand. They take horology VERY seriously. The Labyrinth is not a serious piece of horology though. It isn’t actually a watch. It isn’t an app that lets you shoot birds out of the sky while waiting for someone to email you a press-release that you have to write 500 words on by Monday. It is a familiar titanium case that requires you to move your wrist to shift a platinum ball from one end of a mythological rose gold maze to the other. No geodesic tourbillon. No jumping hours and unique display of time. No second time zone (though there are two sides to the maze that you have to navigate through)… Hautlence make all that stuff too. This is just a childhood game meant to help you meditate your way through your day while you identify your next megatrend.

I’m sure there are folks reading this who are disappointed that this isn’t an uber-smart-watch or who don’t see the need for a dose of whimsy in their lives. One: you are probably not the demographic Hautlence are aiming for. Two: if you don’t see the need for whimsy, then you REALLY need a dose of whimsy in your life. Class dismissed.