Grinding Gears: The Dubai Watch Week Design Competition is Shaping Up Well

Late last year, Dubai Watch Week, teaming up with Grail Watch, announced an ambitious design project, allowing anyone the chance to design their own watch, and — more than that — to see that design turn into a reality, as long as it meets the theme. Well, for the 2025 instalment of the competition, the theme is 'Shaped Watches'. 

Well, the Grinding Gears intern team has been working on their entry, and while they don't have any skill with 3D rendering or real design talent, they firmly believe they have an edge over the competition. That's because the GG Interns have 'a' a cunning plan.' The design lead of the intern team explained, "Yeah, shaped watches are cool — but everyone plays it safe with rectangles, squares, triangles and octagons. We've found a better way — we've googled the weirdest shapes and are using those for our designs. We'll be unstoppable!" Below, we have highlighted three concepts from the Intern Teams' research, along with their design notes. You be the judge as to whether or not they've got what it takes to win. 

The Nonagon 

Gerald Genta was famously obsessed with octagons — many of his watches featured eight-sided bezels, like the Royal Oak, for example. The nonagon takes it one step further — literally. A nine-sided watch. In terms of design inspiration, we've chosen to pay homage to famous octagonal watch designs and opted for an integrated bracelet model with a nine-sided bezel and nine exposed screws. We've also decided to pay homage to the unique shape by having nine numerals on the dial — all nine! We think this combination of innovative approaches, which pays homage to octagonal icons while offering a nine-sided twist, is something no one will see coming. 

The Squircle 

We still aren't sure this is a real shape, but we must admit that Squircle sounds a lot better than 'square with the corners chopped off'. In terms of design approach, we must admit that we've seen this sort of softened square before, but we think we're going to bring a fresh new energy to the shape that Hermès and Cartier lack. We haven't quite worked out the design, but we already have a model name, the Squirclus. It worked for Patek Philippe, didn't it? 

The Annulus 

One of the most common examples of this shape — the space between two concentric rings — is a doughnut. So obviously, we've used a doughnut as the design inspiration — pink, icing-inspired dial, freckles as hour markers — and Homer Simpson would approve. It's a cute, original design, and we're especially proud of the open space in the middle. Now, we haven't started thinking about the movement yet, but surely that won't be too big of a problem, right?