The Hands of Time

 

I recently realized that I have a fascination with the hands of watches. So much in fact that now it will probably influence how I buy watches in the future. Much like calibers, the hands express the care and precision a watchmaker puts into their creations.

I was looking at the time on one of my wrist watches the other day, and it hit me – Hey, I really like the hands on this watch! Conversely, other watches have hands that take a little getting used to. And oddly enough, for me, it doesn’t have to do with how much money the watch costs. I’m not going to get all geeky and technical about this. There is a good piece about watch hands on Unwound, Crown and Caliber’s watch blog, called The Nicknames of Watch Hands. It covers the technical part pretty well.

Really, what I am drawn to is the esthetic side of the design of watch hands. Some are delicate, some are brawny. Some are whimsical and some are all business.

My grandfather’s pocket watch, the Howard, is delicate and part of the gracefulness of the watch itself. The hands, spade-like, are an extension of the numbers, along with the movement - the gestalt of a watch that is over 100 years old. And it's still telling time.

Likewise, the Tourby also conveys an orderliness and a delicacy in the hands, also spade-like, and are heat-blued steel, producing an attractive dark blue color. It’s worth noting that the Tourby movement, as I was told by the person who owned it before me, hearkens back to earlier pocket watch movements. In fact, when wound and put to the ear, one can hear it ticking. It’s such a subtle watch that belongs to another era, but one which fits perfectly into my life right now.

The Bulgari Octo Finissimo Titanium has skeletonized hands, which resemble Obelisque or Alpha hands, although neither are exactly like the Octo Finissimo hands. But they are dramatic and assertive. And very simple and elegant.

The Omega Speedmaster has Pencil hands, filled with lume. I’m not sure I like them as much as other ones. But I love the Speedmaster, so now that I cannot unsee the hands, I reckon love is blind. So I’ve been told.

My everyday wears are all over the map with regards to hands. The Doxa Sub 200 seems to have hands that are paddle-like, as do the Brew and the Zodiac watches. They seem a bit clunky to me, not really my cup of tea, hands-wise. The Brew and Zodiac have a redeeming element in that they are colorful. The Doxa is monochromatic.

The Yonger & Besson look to have a modified Alpha, in that the ends are blunt not pointed. There might be a name for that. The hands are also blued. Named Le Singulier, it’s a mechanical skeleton watch from the French side of the Jura, some 7 miles to the Swiss border. It’s a nice little watch, kind of a quiet riot watch.

And then some of my work watches and tool watches.  The Unimatic, which is a diver, has brawny and bright “fat” pencil hands. The G-Shock “Casioak” similarly has these fat and stubby pencil hands. They work well, if they are more utilitarian than elegant.

And lastly, the Tudor and the Certina. The also appear to have pencil-like hands, although the hour hands pivot from pure pencil. In the case of the Tudor, there is a snowflake, which is unique to Tudor. In fact, some refer to those hands as the Snowflake.

And the Certina, while the minute hand is pencil-like, the hour hand is more arrow-like. And the arrow is carried over into the GMT hand as well. I like both the Tudor and the Certina.

But what I learned was that there are hands I haven’t yet encountered. And the big takeaway is that I apparently really like the more elegant and delicate hands that resemble a Spade. Now I know that. And now you do too, for what it’s worth.

All this being said, when one really looks at the design of a watch, it’s important to find something in the design element that is pleasing to you. After all, you’re going to be wearing it. You should like what you wear. Even in these laid-back times, where fashion has become less structured. Just as, it seems, our lives have.

 

 written and photographed by Alfonso Cevola - limited rights reserved