By Gary Girdvainis
Throughout history watches and clocks have been designed to show the passage of time in a variety of ways beyond the current time. Think of the various functions for elapsed time, moon phase, sunrise, sunset, dual time, world time, countdown timers and tides. These movements and mechanisms have evolved to frenetically slice time into thinner and thinner segments striving for split-second accuracy.
With his own perspective, Israel-based Itay Noy uses modern mechanical technology to slow us down. With a longer view of the time continuum, Noy’s latest watch, Seven-Day Cycle, encourages us to visualize where each day resides in the longer scope of the week and in your own daily progression through time. Two companion models in the collection, Rest Day and Shabbat, fill out the full Seven-Day Cycle series with equally intriguing approaches to traditional timekeeping.
I first met Itay Noy many years ago at the Basel Fair. His small and unassuming display at the back of Hall 5 was nothing impressive – merely a vitrine with his early models that looked nothing like watches I had seen before.
I stopped and met with Itay and was as impressed by his enthusiasm and belief in his own vision as I was of his unusual take on timekeeping. While I’m typically skeptical of success for most new brands, his firm belief in himself and his designs led me to consider that Itay Noy had a better-than-average chance of surviving in the challenging and crowded field of watch brands. 
More than twenty years later Itay Noy has not only survived but continues to thrive by evoking his own timekeeping designs hand-built in Israel in very small volumes – with dials and functions inspired by both secular and religious dogma.
The Seven-Day Cycle watch (below) reveals the weekdays on the dial with the seventh day as Sunday.
“Instead of a single window revealing the traditional names of weekdays, I skeletonized all weekdays on the dial as numeric values (first day, second day and so on) and the seventh day as a rest day,” Itay Noy says of Rest Day.
“Each day will be highlighted in turn. Each watch can be personalized to the owner’s faith or preferences simply by choosing any day of the week as his (or her) rest day.”
On the Shabbat watch, find the Hebrew weekdays on the dial and the seventh day is Shabbat. Each day will be highlighted in turn. In addition, each day a new Hebrew letter will appear in the small window at 6 o’clock and together complete the sentence: “God finished the work he has done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had; (Genesis 2:2).
Price: $4,900.
SPECIFICATIONS: Ita Noy Seven-Day Cycle
(A limited edition of 77, each numbered)
Movement: Automatic, INS200, Ø29mm, Height 5.05mm, 26 Jewels 28,800vph, power reserve 38 hours.
Functions: hours, minutes, sweep seconds, quick-set date, and 7-day windows.
Case: 40mm by 8.4mm stainless steel 316L, sapphire crystal, screw-down case back, water-resistant to 50 meters.
Strap: Handmade leather.
Price: $4,900.
One is cased in white gold set with 1,500 brilliant-cut diamonds with 876 brilliant-cut blue sapphires (6.58 ct, Reference 7118/1451G-001),one offers rubies (Reference 7118/1452G-001) and the third is set with emeralds (Reference 7118/1453G-001) using the “snow setting” technique.
