No.03 – blue

The No.03 is the automatic answer to a hand-wound question, and in 38 mm it is the most wearable version of the whole idea.

MeisterSinger built the No.03 as the self-winding sister to its founding No.01, keeping the dial language identical and swapping the engraved solid caseback for a sapphire window over the movement. It holds a Good Design Award. The three case sizes are genuinely different watches rather than scaled copies, and this 38 mm runs the slim Sellita SW300 automatic behind 18 mm lugs, with no date to break the symmetry of the dial.

Blue is the crispest ground for the printed scale. Numerals appear as continuous double digits from 01 to 12, with half-hour, quarter-hour and five-minute markers laid between them, and a single long needle reading against the lot. The German brand designs in Münster and builds in Switzerland, and it modifies each movement it buys so that one long hand runs smoothly, without the wobble a conventional three-hand watch never has to solve.

Compact, quietly graphic, and easy to live with as an only watch.

Perfect for: 38 mm automatic watch buyers, blue dial daily wear seekers, collectors who want to see the movement through the back.