Rory Corr, an architect and part-time lecturer at the Glasgow School of Art, received a Max Bill watch as a marriage proposal gift from his future wife, Amy Wilson, a jewelry brand consultant. The present held particular significance given Mr. Corr’s long-standing admiration for the Swiss designer Max Bill, noted for his minimalist and functional style.

Mr. Corr first encountered Max Bill’s design ethos during his studies at the Glasgow School of Art, describing it as “honest” and “modest,” with a raw, unembellished aesthetic. After graduating in 2011 and relocating to London, he became attracted to a steel Junghans watch, influenced by Max Bill’s designs from over six decades earlier. The timepiece, featuring a clean 40-millimeter face with two chronoscope subdials and a date display, caught his attention for its precise yet understated details.

In 2012, Mr. Corr began dating Ms. Wilson, who had also moved from Glasgow to London. Their shared interests in design and culture included discussions about the watch that had captivated Mr. Corr. The couple’s relationship deepened, leading them to move in together by spring 2013 in Hackney, London. Around this time, Mr. Corr found the watch in a black dial variant, a version he preferred over the original white dial he had admired.

In 2016, while visiting family in Glasgow amid concerns for her brother’s health, Ms. Wilson mentally escaped the difficulty by envisioning presenting Mr. Corr with the watch and proposing marriage. Eventually, she purchased the timepiece online from Chronext for £1,170 (approximately $1,555 at the time) in August of that year. Shortly thereafter, she surprised Mr. Corr with plane tickets to Prague for a weekend getaway shortly before his 30th birthday.

Though Ms. Wilson initially planned to propose at dinner, she chose instead to do so at a rooftop bar overlooking the city. The moment was met with mutual tears of joy. During the same evening, Mr. Corr disclosed his own plans to propose on a subsequent trip to California; he had commissioned a custom 9-karat gold ring featuring a diamond and a bezel-set blue sapphire—the couple’s shared birthstone—from jewelry designer Mayo Nomura. Ms. Nomura had previously been affiliated with Alex Monroe, where Ms. Wilson had worked as a brand manager.

Mr. Corr and Ms. Wilson married on August 24, 2018. Since the proposal, Mr. Corr has worn the Max Bill watch continuously for nearly a decade, including during work on building sites and social occasions, emphasizing its functional and symbolic value.