Ever Wanted to Design a Watch? Dubai Watch Week Wants to See.

Ever been to Worn & Wound’s WindUp Watch Fair and thought to yourself: Damn, I wish I could design and sell a cool watch? Well, that dream might just be closer than you think.

Announced at Dubai Watch Week’s Horology Forum in Hong Kong last month, the UAE-founded event series is teaming up with Grail Watch, a Singaporean limited-edition watch producer founded by Revolution magazine’s Wei Koh, on a special competition aimed at newbie watch designers. The gist is this: If you’ve got an idea for a wristwatch, you can submit it for consideration to Dubai Watch Week and Grail Watch to have it reviewed by a panel of industry experts. The winner will be selected at Dubai Watch Week 2025, after which it’ll be produced by Roventa-Henex, Switzerland’s top producer of white-label watches. (The under-the-radar firm produces pieces for some of the world’s biggest companies.)

With submissions open through the last day of 2024, potential applicants have some time to get their designs in order, which can be submitted any way one pleases — be it a line drawing, CAD design or otherwise. But beware, despite it being open to amateurs, applicants are expected to have put thought into a business plan, marketing, storytelling and other elements. And the competition has a theme: Shaped watches, such as the famous designs of Gilbert Albert for Patek Philippe. Entrants are also expected to keep the list price of their design below $5,000 in order to make the watch available to as many people as possible.

The competition is launching alongside a case study — namely, an awesome new world timer from a brand new watch company whose founder leveraged his love of architecture into a compelling debut model. The Alterum Worldtimer, available through Grail Watch, is an integrated-bracelet sports watch in the mode of the Royal Oak or Nautilus paired with a futuristic take on every globetrotter’s favorite complication. Looking like the love child of Dieter Rams and Gérald Genta, it’s powered by a modified, Swiss-made Sellita movement and priced at $3,315 — not entry-level microbrand territory, to be sure, but perfectly reasonable given its novel looks, quality finishing and highly considered design.

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Drawing on architectural gems such as the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Guggenheim Museum in New York and the Foster + Partners-designed Steve Jobs Theater at Apple Park in Cupertino, Alterum founder Justin Walters conceived of a novel play on the world timer concept: Rather than use traditional hands, the black dial uses a series of four concentric rings that display (from innermost ring to outer) the minutes, hours, 24 daily hours and 24 cities around the globe. Controlled via the upper of two crowns on the case flank, the city and 24-hour disc make it easy to track and display world time. The lugless, vapor-blasted 38.5mm stainless steel case provides 50m of water resistance.

Limited to 100 pieces, the Alterum Worldtimer is one of the year’s most captivating sub-$5,000 releases. And if it’s indicative of the caliber of watches that will result from the DWW X Grail Watch Design Competition, then next year’s Dubai Watch Week is set to be one of the most exciting iterations of the horological fair yet.

Time to brush up on your CAD skills, people!