The luxury watches feature an in-built qibla pointer, sunrise and sunset indicators for those who are fasting and prayer reminder functions for Muslims around the world "We wanted to have something in a classic, timeless and understated design," CEO Tom Morf said DUBAI: Swiss luxury watchmaker Aramedes has added designs aimed at women to its recently released Mecca Collection, which incorporates key functions in its products to help Muslims practice their faith. For the latest updates, follow us on Instagram @arabnews.lifestyle At any time of day, Muslims around the world must know the direction of Makkah, daily prayer times and, during Ramadan, fasting times, but until three months ago there was no luxury watch on the market that could offer information on all three things. To fill this gap, Aramedes designed a high-tech electronic component integrated into the watch case, with software to calculate the location of the wearer via mobile radio triangulation. The watch displays the information on sub-dials, while a subtle vibration alerts wearers when it is time to pray five times a day. Press the button at the 2 o’clock mark and the watch will calculate the direction of Makkah based on the wearer’s location and display it on a compass-like dial. Depending on the location, it will also calculate the time of the day’s sunrise and sunset, displaying the information on a panel at the 6 o’clock mark. Tom Morf, CEO and co-founder of Aramedes, spoke to Arab News about the collection. “Muslims in their daily life are using these kinds of elements like astronomy — sunrise and sunset (are) deeply rooted in their daily life. So, we said there is something we can contribute … wherever you are on this planet, you need to know where Makkah is,” he said. “Then you have the daily prayer times, five times, and fasting during Ramadan — also people sometimes fast during the week. So we started to work on these three elements.” When it came to the design, Morf said his team went with a less is more approach. “We wanted to have something in a classic, timeless and understated design. Especially when it comes to religion, you have to be careful … when it comes to religion, you have to be subtle. You have to be classy, appreciative.” That appreciation of Islamic culture extends to the use of Arabic numerals on the watch face, as well as mashrabiya-like elements on the back of the watch to pay homage to traditional architecture in the Islamic world. “It is a subtle timekeeper that is not extroverted and does not shout out a ‘look at me.’ We wanted to have a timeless, classic mechanical watch with the special functions.”