Designer Yuan Youmin explains how he created a special edition of Rado's True Square watch by drawing from traditional Chinese measuring instruments in this video produced by Dezeen for the Swiss watch brand.
Yuan drew inspiration from a traditional measuring device called a steelyard to design the watch for Rado, which is called Rado True Square True Heart.
Chinese designer Yuan Youmin has created a special edition of Rado's True Square watch
Steelyards work by using a sliding counterweight to counterbalance the load of an object placed in a tray at the end of a rod to indicate its weight.
"Steelyards have been anchored into Chinese life for almost two thousand years," Yuan explained in the video, which Dezeen filmed at his studio in Hangzhou. "They consist of a graduated measuring rod, a weighing tray and a movable counterweight."
The design of the watch draws from traditional Chinese measuring instruments
Yuan took the dot graduation marks on a Chinese steelyard rod and used these as the basis for the hour markings on the timepiece.
"I used the dot graduation marked on the beam of a steelyard as a motif for the watch," he explained.
"The lever arms of the scales become the slender watch hands, the round dial represents the weighing tray."

The markings on the watch face are gold coloured. The back of the watch case features the representation of a phoenix.
"On the back of the watch case is an image of a phoenix, which symbolis...