A closer look at Kudoke's K3
Based in the heart of German watchmaking country, near Glashütte, Kudoke has established itself as one of the more popular independent brands in recent years. The brand’s HANDwerk collection – launched in 2019 with the Kudoke 1 and 2 timepieces – solidified its position in the industry when the K2 won the Petite Aiguille Award at GPHG 2019.
With the much anticipated arrival of the K3 last year, Kudoke’s third addition to the HANDwerk collection, we wanted to take a deeper dive into what we consider to be a big, evolutionary swing for the brand. An exceptionally designed timepiece, this is our closer look at Kudoke’s latest contribution to watchmaking.
The K3 - an overview
For context, the HANDwerk collection with the K1 and K2 was a significant departure from Kudoke’s original collection, KUNSTwerk. Stefan, the watchmaker behind his eponymous brand, launched Kudoke in 2005 and focused for the first decade on their specialties – skeletonization and hand-engraving. The KUNSTwerk collection introduced some exquisite, three-dimensional hand-engraved timepieces at great prices. From the KudOktopus to the Skull, these lavishly engraved timepieces are the foundation of the brand.
Covered in our profile on the brand, the HANDwerk collection sought to provide contrast – something more “classic” with more minimalist designs. Two sides of one personality, both collections sit side by side, complimenting without competing against each other. The connection between the KUNSTwerk and HANDwerk timepieces is the focus on craftsmanship and creativity at “reasonable” prices within artisanal independent watchmaking.
While it appears more complicated with its three-dimensional dial and unusual indication of time, the K3 remains in line with the HANDwerk’s principles. It’s a time-only watch, featuring a 39mm stainless steel case, blued hands, onion crown, and the foundational caliber of the collection, the Kaliber 1. This is the language of the collection through three watches.
One of the major challenges in creating a well-rounded collection is ensuring that there’s evolution in each timepiece. Kudoke does that job well with the introduction of the K3. The three-arm hour hand, as the brand labels it, glides clockwise across the triple-scale hour register on the K3’s two-level dial. When one arm of the hand reaches the end of the hour register, the next longer or shorter arm appears at the beginning of the next. Hours 2, 6 and 10 are then shown twice on different scales before the current hand arm moves on. The design came about in light of Stefan’s experience at Glashütte Original – the Panograph features an unusual 30-minute counter at 4 o’clock for the timepiece’s chronograph.
What sticks out on the K3
There are a few things about the K3 that really attracted us to the timepiece, so much so that we collaborated on an exclusive, special edition K3 in Forrest Green. The first has to do with a sort of synthesis in the aesthetics of the brand’s two collections.
We mentioned it previously, that the KUNSTwerk and HANDwerk collections are two sides of one watchmaker’s personality. The former is more eccentric, experimental than the latter’s classical, more minimalist in look. The K3 retains all of the continuity inside the HANDwerk collection – case, caliber, crown, as well as a slew of other shared motifs from the infinity symbol at 12 o’clock to the minute chapter ring. But the indication of time brings it a step toward the more “unusual” where Kudoke’s origins lie. It’s exceptionally creative, simply not something we would have expected on the heels of the K1 and K2. The best in the business find their way to do this though – inject novelty into every timepiece without deviating too far from the brand’s established design language.
The other aspect of the K3 that sticks out to us is that this is the type of timepiece that helps move German watchmaking in new directions. There’s always the question, what does independent watchmaking do? What’s its role in the broader industry? There are many different answers to this question, but one of them is this: independent watchmaking explores, and takes risks, that many major mainstream brands simply won’t. It is creative and experimental – the bleeding edge in design and mechanics. Major Glashütte brands (Lange, Glashütte Original, Nomos) carry long traditions in classical, minimalist watchmaking with a focus on high-level craftsmanship. The K3 fits that model of watchmaking, but it simply feels like it’s a bigger swing (at least right now) than most. This is what moves industries, traditions along by provoking other watchmakers and brands to reflect – creations that don’t fit easily inside the established box.