This Ingenious Watch Design Allows the Blind to Tell Time by Touch
Eone Bradley x KBT watch.
Photograph by Jessica Pettway for Bloomberg Businessweek. Prop stylist: Kody Pangburn.
The first thing you notice about Eone Bradley watches is that there are no hands pointing to the hours or minutes. Time is indicated by ball bearings—one for minutes, near the center of the dial, and one for hours, on a recessed track around the outside edge. The magnetic markers are guided by a battery-powered quartz movement made by Ronda AG of Switzerland. All the watches are named for the brand’s spokesman, Bradley Snyder: A four-time Paralympics gold medalist in swimming, he lost his sight while serving as a U.S. Navy bomb defuser in Afghanistan. The company has introduced the $285 Eone Bradley x KBT timepiece, with profits supporting the Kilimanjaro Blind Trust, which teaches blind children in East Africa how to read and write in Braille.
• One of the first timepieces for the visually impaired is the $265 Seiko S23159. (It’s currently out of stock, but the SWL001, with a black dial, is available.) A hinged crystal flips open for access to the raised markers inside.