Moving round the dial hypnotically
Ever since it was founded in 2016, by Zhang Jianmin of Shenzhen in Tianjin, China, the independent watch company has garnered 17 international design awards, including Red Dot, IF Design Awards and the most prestigious of them all, the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Geneve (GPHG) Challenge Prize in 2021, to name a few. The philosophy behind the company was to produce avant-garde timepieces with mechanical movements at an affordable price, something that is very close to the veteran architect's heart, and his passion as a watch collector and special appreciation for modern and futuristic timepieces.
Towards the end of January 2026, CIGA Design unveiled a new watch, which is definitely a futuristic watch, no surprise there. But what makes the latest addition to the family special is not just its aesthetic design; it is the rather unusual time-telling, which is very much part of the design of the movement itself. The time is told via wandering hours; the concept is nothing new. There is only one other watch company that has it, but that was a lot more complicated and sophisticated, and far pricier.
Let’s have a closer look at the Time Cipher and see what makes it so special. To begin with, the watch is powered by an in-house developed Calibre CD-08, which powers the hours and minutes arm. How it works is that the hour dial disc sits at the end of the rotating bridge, which is located centrally, and it sweeps around the dial every 60 minutes or every hour. The hours dial, on the other hand, rotates on its own axis around its dial every 12 hours, marked by the SuperLuminova-coated green Arabic numerals, with its fixed indicator located centrally. The minutes indicator is also in a fixed position at the top of the hour dial on the peripheral, as it indicates the minutes in white transfers. The rotating arm and the dial are driven by the automatic calibre, which emits 28,800 vph with a 42-hour power reserve, with a wandering hours function that has been reengineered in-house from a Miyota 9000 series ebauche.
The movement is hidden beneath a Super Black dial, which absorbs up to 99.3% of light. The extreme black contrast beautifully against the white minute markers on the flange of the black dial, and also it makes the beautifully matte polished rotating bridge and the green SuperLuminova hours display dial. And the watch is housed in a 45mm stainless steel case, with a choice of silver case colour or a carbon case colour.
If you are a fan of avant-garde or futuristic timepiece watches that won’t break your bank account or induce you to plan a bank heist, then you should consider the CIGA Design Time Cipher seriously as a contender. As it is one design you will always find fascinating, and looking like a million bucks.
