John Moltz, on the fetishization of circular watches:

The reason most analog watches were round is not because round watches are better or because square watches can’t be stylish. It’s simply because the motion of the hands describes a circle. That’s all the space that was ever needed for the device to fulfill its most basic function. Because that shape is so tightly suited to that particular function, it’s decidedly at odds with adding functionality to it. Thus we have the date being blocked by the hands once every hour. A tricked-out watch like a chronograph watches suffer from almost all of those added features being blocked by the hands.

He’s decided to switch from analog faces to the Modular face in order to make better use of the Apple Watch’s screen. I’ll have to keep this in mind when I eventually purchase an Apple Watch.