Someone somewhere, in Geneva perhaps or on Madison Avenue, knows why the time on advertised luxury watches is 10:10 and is keeping schtum. It’s when I suffer from a serious lack of things to worry about that I worry about things like that, and I would very much welcome that person telling me why. Otherwise I’m left to my own devices, and these could take me anywhere.
There is the smiley face explanation (which the hands of the clock form at this hour), the various arguments from numerology (time of death of some famous people), the watchmaker’s name set off to good effect by that particular configuration of the hands. Aah! There is the clue. The angle!
So what angle is that? Well, I thought 120 degrees. It is pretty symmetrical and divides the face 3 ways. There are 20 minutes between the number 10, which is where the hour hand is pointing, and the number 2, which is where the minute hand is pointing. 20 minutes corresponds to 120 degrees. Except if the angle was 120 degrees, neither the hour hand would be in the number 10 position nor the minute hand in the number 2 position.
Say, we start counting at precisely 10 o’clock, because that way we can be sure the hour hand is exactly on the number 10 mark and the minute hand exactly on the number 12 mark. The hour hand moves at 5 min per hour, the minute hand at 60 min per hour. The distance between the hands must be 20 min (for the 120 degrees angle), but the minute hand has a 10 min headstart over the hour hand. This gives us the formula: d/5 = [(d + 20) – 10] / 60, where ‘d’ is the distance travelled by the hour hand. Accordingly, d = 0.9, so the time at which the hour hand and the minute hand are at 120 degrees is roughly 10:10:54. The 54 seconds (following rounding) is not a big difference, but it means that the second hand would have to be between the hour hand and the minute hand, which would ruin the symmetry.
The catch is that the time is not 10:10:54 at all. Closer inspection reveals that the majority of watches are set to something like 10:09:36. Working backwards (the formula would now be d/5 = 9.6/60) we learn that d = 0.8, or about 48 seconds (the distance the hour hand has nudged above the number 10 mark). The distance between the hour hand and the minute hand now is 18 minutes and 48 seconds, which is equivalent to about 112.8 degrees. What is so special about 112.8 degrees? Is this a Swiss sense of beauty or a Swiss sense of humour?
Harmony, symmetry and proportion - the constituents of beauty – go back to Pythagoras. We learn from Palladio, for example, that for a column to be pleasant to look at the height of the column should be nine times its diameter. Modern commerce has developed the idea of ‘buy one get one free’ or 9.99, and my guess is not because they imply a bargain but because they sound or look pleasing (compare: ‘buy three get one free’ and 9.98). So, if someone knows what it is about 112.8 degrees on watch faces, come on, out with it!
There is the smiley face explanation (which the hands of the clock form at this hour), the various arguments from numerology (time of death of some famous people), the watchmaker’s name set off to good effect by that particular configuration of the hands. Aah! There is the clue. The angle!
So what angle is that? Well, I thought 120 degrees. It is pretty symmetrical and divides the face 3 ways. There are 20 minutes between the number 10, which is where the hour hand is pointing, and the number 2, which is where the minute hand is pointing. 20 minutes corresponds to 120 degrees. Except if the angle was 120 degrees, neither the hour hand would be in the number 10 position nor the minute hand in the number 2 position.
Say, we start counting at precisely 10 o’clock, because that way we can be sure the hour hand is exactly on the number 10 mark and the minute hand exactly on the number 12 mark. The hour hand moves at 5 min per hour, the minute hand at 60 min per hour. The distance between the hands must be 20 min (for the 120 degrees angle), but the minute hand has a 10 min headstart over the hour hand. This gives us the formula: d/5 = [(d + 20) – 10] / 60, where ‘d’ is the distance travelled by the hour hand. Accordingly, d = 0.9, so the time at which the hour hand and the minute hand are at 120 degrees is roughly 10:10:54. The 54 seconds (following rounding) is not a big difference, but it means that the second hand would have to be between the hour hand and the minute hand, which would ruin the symmetry.
The catch is that the time is not 10:10:54 at all. Closer inspection reveals that the majority of watches are set to something like 10:09:36. Working backwards (the formula would now be d/5 = 9.6/60) we learn that d = 0.8, or about 48 seconds (the distance the hour hand has nudged above the number 10 mark). The distance between the hour hand and the minute hand now is 18 minutes and 48 seconds, which is equivalent to about 112.8 degrees. What is so special about 112.8 degrees? Is this a Swiss sense of beauty or a Swiss sense of humour?
Harmony, symmetry and proportion - the constituents of beauty – go back to Pythagoras. We learn from Palladio, for example, that for a column to be pleasant to look at the height of the column should be nine times its diameter. Modern commerce has developed the idea of ‘buy one get one free’ or 9.99, and my guess is not because they imply a bargain but because they sound or look pleasing (compare: ‘buy three get one free’ and 9.98). So, if someone knows what it is about 112.8 degrees on watch faces, come on, out with it!
Only noticed this after your post! Indeed, all the watches advertised on the pages of The Economist are set to 10:10 (or thereabouts). Life's full of such observations!
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