OPTIMEF present the Fărăzece watch series

OPTIMEF was first launched in 1979 and was the very first Romanian watch. It was a “modern, sharp and reliable timepiece” according to its advertising.

Sadly, the entire industry shut down in the 90s, along with the fall of communism.

Almost 40 years after its original release we are reinventing the Romanian watch brand OPTIMEF. We aim to create designs that inspire a mélange of clean minimalism and Memphis Group-like quirkiness. OPTIMEF represents our attempt to pay homage to the once productive Romanian watch making industry. Besides the attention to technical and design details, we are adding a contemporary touch to the 70s and 80s aesthetics of the original brand. We work with simple geometrical elements and a set of primary colors reunited in a minimalist design but always with a twist.

Inspired from the past but looking towards the future, OPTIMEF is telling a story, not just the time.

Fărăzece is the first OPTIMEF model. Both its design and name are inspired by the way we Romanians read time. Fărăzece means ‘ten minutes to’, and it is reference to how we say five minutes to / ten minutes to / fifteen minutes to a certain hour, in other words, a natural way in which we relate to the passing of time. This detail triggered the idea of shifting from the conventional display to a new and original distribution of the markers on the dial. Instead of having conventional numerals, Fărăzece marks 12 o’clock with a zero, and then counts past the hour in five minute increments. After reaching the half past mark, it begins to count backwards to the next hour.