Ole Mathiesen, the creator of a watch that many architects wear as a badge of their belief in simple, pure, and direct design, has died. The son of a watchmaker, Mathiesen was born in 1930 and trained in Switzerland with manufacturer Jaeger-LeCoultre before returning to his native Denmark to run his family company.

In 1962 Mathiesen set out to create a series of “timeless, classic watches” that he claimed were “strong enough to find harmony in its own form, a watch that was never pretentious, neither in form nor price.” No wonder architects, designers, and architecture editors find these watches to be straightforward emblems of honest, wearable design.