Defakto Akkord watches

The Defakto Akkord is the two-hand follow-up to Defakto's original one-hand watch. Raphael Ickler founded Defakto in 2009, and its watches are made in Pforzheim at the Ickler family factory, which dates to 1924; Ickler also makes Archimede and Limes. Worn & Wound announced the Akkord in September 2011 as a 42 mm steel automatic, 8 mm thick, with a sapphire crystal, 50 m water resistance and the ETA 2824-2.

The dial carries no numerals. Rectangles of different widths mark the hours and minutes, in black on white or white on black, and there is no seconds hand. The trick is in the hands: the hour hand is an outline whose open centre matches the width of the solid minute hand, so on the hour the two read as a single shape.

The Standard Akkord comes in plain steel or with a black PVD coating. 4.AKK-1101 is the steel watch with a black dial and 4.AKK-1201 its white-dial twin, while 4.AKK-0101-SW and 4.AKK-0201-SW are the black and white PVD versions. In 2014 Defakto added the Modular, which keeps the 42 mm size and the ETA 2824-2 but pairs a brushed steel or bronze central case with a black PVD bezel and crown. It was the first time Defakto used bronze. 4.AKK-0301-MOD-S is the steel Modular with a black dial, 4.AKK-0301-MOD the same watch in bronze, and the 0401 references are the white-dial pair.

Worn & Wound's review of the bronze Modular measured it at 9.5 mm thick with a 20 mm lug width, so it takes a 20 mm strap. It has no lume, the crown is a wide, flat cylinder with a toothed edge, and the solid screw-down steel caseback is laser-etched with a drawing of the Brückenmeisterei, Defakto's Berlin offices.