Review: Neobrutalist Horology & the Kollokium Projekt 01

About 15 years ago I came across a brand out of the Netherlands called d.m.h. which was, in reality, a single person by the name of Fred Dingemans, working out of a shed in his backyard. His creations were raw and slightly impractical, but they were also a pure expression of creativity, and unwaveringly original. These watches were captivating at a glance, showcasing a similar level of creative fidelity to what we were seeing from the likes of Urwerk and MB&F at the time. This is a quality sorely taken for granted these days, with most of the newcomers wisely choosing to play it safe with practical, conventionally attractive creations that can go anywhere, and do anything. 

I have a well-documented love of practical tool watches that can go anywhere and do anything, but I often lament the homogeneous nature of watch design that this trend has brought us to. Truly novel expressions are a rare sight these days, but there has been exactly one to cross my radar over the past year that has brought a similar feeling to seeing a d.m.h. watch all those years ago, and that is the kollokium projekt 01. 

My first glimpse of kollokium came when I spotted one on the wrist of one of the co-founders while attending the Dubai Watch Week events of 2023. This individual, uncoincidentally, is also responsible for the avant-garde creations coming out of Louis Errard these days. His name is Manuel Emch, and he is one of three men (the others being Barth Nussbaumer, and Amr Sindi) behind kollokium, which seems to be something of a side project created to express the trio’s desire to “transcend the confines of traditional watchmaking,” according to them. Kollokium is defiant, refusing to be labeled as a brand, instead referring to itself as a “project-based platform.” About exactly what you’d expect from an exercise highlighting neobrutialism for inspiration. 

Kollokium references the term “neobrutalist horology” to contextualize the aesthetic and creative goals of the project’s vision. “It’s about capturing a mood,” they say. “If traditional watchmaking is a classical opera, kollokium is an indie, gritty sci-fi noir.” Far too often hyperbolic phrases like this are attached to press releases about watches looking to make a statement, and rarely are they backed up in a meaningful way. The kollokium projekt 01 is one of those rare exceptions. 

So what is this, exactly? There are three hands and a crown, and you can use it to approximate the time, sure, but there’s something else going on here. This watch boils down to the dynamic experience of the dial, which changes at every angle and light condition. Generally speaking, when I describe the dial of a watch in that manner, I’m referring to the finish or texture that’s been achieved. But here, there is no flat surface that’s been machined. Instead, the dial itself is composed of 468 applied cylindrical markers that range in height, coming to their peaks where you’d normally expect to see a numeral or applied bar. The resulting design looks a bit like a binomial distribution visualized in three dimensions after trying to add two normally distributed variables. 

Not only is the dial dynamic in the sense that it takes on different qualities depending on the viewing angle; it also takes on a different appearance depending on the distance at which you viewing it. Held at a few feet away, the density of the applied cylinders creates 12 distinct areas against which you can read the time to a reasonable approximation. To keep with the math analogy, you could express the likelihood of the seconds hand to appear over the dense peaks in a probability distribution function with an area of pi. However, that density is just an illusion. The cylinders actually create a grid pattern when viewed from the top, and what creates the appearance of density is the length and width of the cylinders.

It’s complicated, but the key takeaway here is that it looks really, really cool. Especially when the lights go out. At the tip of each cylinder is a dollop of lume which matches the seconds hand in hue. This effect is accentuated by the petri-dish-style glassbox sapphire crystal over the base cylinder of the case. This allows you to view the three-dimensional dial from a high degree of angles, increasing levels of drama. None of it adheres to conventional wisdom, and that’s kind of the point here. 

Even the shape of the case has its own surprises, consisting of two die-cast pieces made of steel. The base platform serves as a carriage for the central cylinder containing the movement and the dial. That base also incorporates a shapely lug design that feels a bit sci-fi in nature, and holds a 20mm spring bar for a pass-through strap. The measurements betray the most conventional elements of this watch — which is a good thing, as it is still intended to be worn on the wrist, after all. The case measures 40mm in diameter, and 11mm in thickness, which includes the tall glassbox crystal. It contains a La Joux-Perret G101 automatic, time-only movement. There is no bezel here and the case itself only reaches up to 9.3mm in thickness; when viewed from the side, it gives the impression that those tubes are growing out of the case itself (again with the petri dish vibes). 

Setting all the conceptual stuff aside, in practice, this is a somewhat strange watch to get along with in daily wear. It wears perfectly well (quite comfortably, even), and it’s not too difficult to get a read on the time to a reasonable amount of accuracy, but there’s an experience that comes along with this watch that doesn’t feel particularly well suited to daily wear. For me, at least. This is a watch that falls into that “fourth watch” category. We all have a core trio that will serve us well in formal situations, weekend lounging, and physical activities (or some approximation of those); and then there are watches that give us an experience we love, but don’t fit neatly into one of those categories. This kollokium very much lands in this territory. 

I love the experience of this watch, and it’s a delight to wear, but it’s one that’s best savored in certain situations. In this sense, it’s a bit like one of my favorite cocktails, the Aviation, which I kind of have to be in the mood for. If a watch like the Submariner is an ounce of your favorite bourbon served neat, the kollokium is an Aviation. It’s different, unique, and nuanced, but not ideal for regular consumption. There are plenty of watches that I’d put into this “fourth watch” category, and these are often the watches that experience a high turnover rate within collections due to the simple fact that they may or may not get worn all that often because of their nature (think of a watch like the Omega PloProf or Citizen Aqualand). This is, ironically, one of the forces driving that homogeneity that people like me complain about. It’s exactly what makes watches like the d.m.h. jump hour, and this kollokium, such a breath of fresh air.

The projekt 01 is the first expression of what kollokium is, and it’s important to keep in mind that this is not a “brand.” Think of it more as an umbrella under which that vibe will be established. So don’t expect future releases to look much like this, but rather to flesh out exactly what that vibe is. If this watch is any indication, future releases will no doubt carve their own, similarly unconventional paths. With enough perfectly suitable daily tool watches out there to choose from, these are exactly the kinds of experiments that should remind us of just how fun and expressive this hobby can be now that the core function of a watch has been rendered redundant. 

The projekt 01 has been produced in four different variations, each quite limited in nature, and I’d expect to see additional expressions released in the near future.