I know you just love it when we present watch concepts here on Techpin. Or maybe not… Anyway, if you can’t make up your mind whether you’d like a fancy digital watch or a stylish analog one, here’s some help for you. This would be some sort of hybrid watch at first glance.

Di Grisogono Meccanica DG watch is a completely analog timepiece that resembles a digital one. It’s made out of 651 pieces and there are absolutely no digital parts or LEDs whatsoever. What you see here is only a limited, 177 pieces edition specially made to mark the 50th anniversary of the Genevan brand. It was billed as the most complicated digital-analog timepiece in the world,. However, as I pointed out earlier, the display is only mechanical in nature, with rolling tubes standing for the so called “digital” segments.

The press release neatly describes the process behind this complicated technology. The mechanically operated digital display of the second time zone shows tens of hours, single hours, tens of minutes and single minutes, all displayed by mobile microsegments driven by an assemblage of 23 cams connected to a set of gears and a triggering and synchronization system. The time information is displayed by an array of 23 horizontally and vertically positioned microsegments. Vertical segments are 9 mm high and weigh at most 25 milligrams while the horizontal segments measure 2.90 mm in length and weigh only 10 milligrams. The segments have four faces: two opposing visible faces fitted with colored strips and two opposing unmarked faces. Time changes are effected by 90° rotations of the required segment or segments. Involving one to twelve segments, time changes are lightning fast.

Being the most complicated timepiece ever made, the Meccanica DG is supposedly priced way up high. Not for mere mortals in any case.