Hands-On With TTT’s Redundant: A Watch That Tells Time Twice

A minimalist timepiece that cleverly second-guesses itself.

In case you’re not familiar with it, The Trio of Time (TTT) is an experimental platform created by Anicorn Watches to bring designers from different cities and disciplines into the world of watchmaking, treating each new release as an opportunity to rethink how time can be displayed.

We recently featured STELLAR, TTT’s kinetic collaboration with Dutch studio Raw Color, and now we are taking a closer look at another conceptual creation: the Redundant Watch by New York-based designer Ji Lee.

Time, Told Twice

The concept is right there in the name. Ji Lee’s design is a visual pun, based on his own 1993 “Redundant Clock”: instead of a conventional dial with numerals or simple markers, the Redundant Watch surrounds its face with twelve tiny printed clock icons, each one frozen to show the hour it represents. The actual hour and minute hands then physically point toward whichever of those mini-clocks corresponds to the current time, so you’re reading a clock face by consulting a ring of miniature clock faces. It tells the time, and then it tells you it’s telling you the time.

It sounds like it should be confusing, and for about the first ten seconds on your wrist, it kinda is. Then something clicks. You stop glancing at your wrist on autopilot and actually look, tracing the hands out to the little marker they’re aimed at. That’s the whole point: Lee has built a small, deliberate stumble into an action most of us do without thinking, and it’s a genuinely charming bit of friction.

Design and Build

The Redundant Watch comes in a few colorways: black, silver and white (currently sold out), alongside a special MoMA edition. But it’s the black version we’ve got in hand here, and it might be the one that suits the concept best.

In black, the effect is at its most graphic. The dial is a flat, matte black, and the twelve tiny clock-hand icons are picked out in a crisp white. Up close, each icon is sharply rendered. You can tell at a glance whether a given “mini clock” is meant to represent 2 o’clock or 10 o’clock, which is no small feat when the entire graphic language is built from a handful of short lines.

The case itself is 316L stainless steel, 39mm across and a slim 8.7mm thick, so it sits low and doesn’t fight for space under a cuff. It’s paired with a genuine leather strap, which can be attached or removed with a simple pull-and-click mechanism. Inside is a Japanese Miyota 2025 quartz movement, and the whole thing is rated to 5ATM, so it’ll happily survive rain, hand-washing, and the odd bit of splashback without a second thought.

The finer touches carry through to the packaging, too. Each release ships in a sharp presentation box with a numbered card, a small reminder that this isn’t a mass-market drop but a limited conceptual run.

Easy to Wear, Hard to Overlook

This is where the black colorway shines. A monochrome dial with white markers is about as close to a design neutral as a watch face gets, which means the Redundant Watch slides into almost any outfit without ever feeling like it’s trying too hard.

Paired with muted knitwear and dark denim, it feels neutral and considered. Roll it under a cuff and it disappears into a smart-casual look entirely. Let it show against a plain black sweater and the white markers do enough visual work on their own that you don’t need anything else competing for attention.

It’s equally happy dressed down. Because there’s no branding on the dial and no color to clash with, it works just as well with streetwear as it does with something closer to workwear. If your wardrobe already leans black, white and grey, this is a watch that will never feel like the odd piece out.

Our Take

The TTT Redundant Watch succeeds by translating a clever graphic idea into something you can wear. It may take an extra beat to read, but that small moment of hesitation is exactly the point here.

In black, it’s about as versatile as a statement piece can get. Understated enough to disappear into most outfits, distinctive enough that someone will eventually ask you what on earth your watch face is doing.

The TTT Redundant Watch (Black) is available now from TTT Watches for $219 USD.

The product featured in this article was provided by the manufacturer for review purposes. No payment was received for this feature, and the opinions expressed are entirely our own. All images © Inspiration Grid unless otherwise credited.