Two movements. The first dual time watches were two separate mechanical watch movements placed in the same case, with two separate sets of dials and hands. The resulting design is similar to the watches that Philip Stein designs today.
The Philip Stein dual time chronograph with its two quartz movements wont excite the horologist, but if you can get past the quartz movements, the resulting watch is a pretty impressive the watch having a date function, an A.M./P.M. indicator and a chronograph function.
The drawback with this type of design is that two movements requires double the maintenance of a watch with a single movement (more of an issue with mechanical watches than quartz watches) and in order to keep the size of the watch reasonable, the dials and hands would have to be relatively small making the watch a bit more difficult to read.
Two hour hands. When Pan Am asked Rolex to solve the problem of creating a watch that could keep track of two timezones, Rolex created the GMT Master. The GMT Master utilizes a second hour hand, which rotates once every 24 hours in order to display the second time zone. In order to create a clear point of reference for the 24 hours hand a second set of hour markers has to be placed somewhere on the dial or bezel. Rolex placed the 24 hour markers on a rotating bezel allowing the GMT Master to keep track of three time zones.
This system has been the most widely used system in displaying two time zones in a analog watch. Variations of this system are to place the 24 hour markers on the dial or on a fixed bezel like with the Omega Seamaster GMT and Rolex Explorer II. Because the second hour hand display "military time" this type of watch has come to be known as the GMT.
Second 12-hour hand. Some designs utilize two 12 hour hands. The advantage of this is both set of hour hands use the same hour makers. This makes for a cleaner looking face. However, in order for the watch to display whether it is AM or PM on the "second" time zone (actually the first, since normally the second hour hand would be used to keep track of home time), a day/night or AM/PM indicator is needed.
This results in a cleaner looking bezel of dial, although an additional complication or mechanism is needed to display day or night as the second hour hand rotates every 12 hours while the day night indicator "rotates" every 24 hours.
The Panerai Luminor 1950 10 day GMT PAM 00270 uses a second 12 hour hand and a day night indicator to keep track of two time zones.
Two faces. Another design created for displaying two time zones in an analog watch is to place one time zone in a sub-dial.
The Oris Artelier Worldtimer is displays a the second time zone in the main dials and the home timezone in the sub-dial. Keep adjustment buttons allow the hour hand in the main dial to be adjusted be increments of +/1 one hour without having to manipulate the crown.
If there is a drawback to this system is that it leaves the dial of the watch rather clutter looking and the main hour hands can sometimes obscure the view to the second set of hour and minute hands.
Time in an aperture. Another way of displaying a second time zone in an analog watch is to place the second time zone in a small aperture or window. Interestingly enough, this is the way two time zones are usually displayed in analog-digital watch.
The IWC Spitfire UTC displays the second time zone discretely in small window.
The advantage of this system is that the design is clean. Time at your current location is displayed by the main hands, while home is cleanly displayed in Arabic numerals in a small window.
Ultimately, watch selection is a subjective matter, and while each system above has advantages and disadvantages, which dual time system is best is equally subjective.
The drawback with this type of design is that two movements requires double the maintenance of a watch with a single movement (more of an issue with mechanical watches than quartz watches) and in order to keep the size of the watch reasonable, the dials and hands would have to be relatively small making the watch a bit more difficult to read.
Two hour hands. When Pan Am asked Rolex to solve the problem of creating a watch that could keep track of two timezones, Rolex created the GMT Master. The GMT Master utilizes a second hour hand, which rotates once every 24 hours in order to display the second time zone. In order to create a clear point of reference for the 24 hours hand a second set of hour markers has to be placed somewhere on the dial or bezel. Rolex placed the 24 hour markers on a rotating bezel allowing the GMT Master to keep track of three time zones.
This system has been the most widely used system in displaying two time zones in a analog watch. Variations of this system are to place the 24 hour markers on the dial or on a fixed bezel like with the Omega Seamaster GMT and Rolex Explorer II. Because the second hour hand display "military time" this type of watch has come to be known as the GMT.
Second 12-hour hand. Some designs utilize two 12 hour hands. The advantage of this is both set of hour hands use the same hour makers. This makes for a cleaner looking face. However, in order for the watch to display whether it is AM or PM on the "second" time zone (actually the first, since normally the second hour hand would be used to keep track of home time), a day/night or AM/PM indicator is needed.
This results in a cleaner looking bezel of dial, although an additional complication or mechanism is needed to display day or night as the second hour hand rotates every 12 hours while the day night indicator "rotates" every 24 hours.
The Panerai Luminor 1950 10 day GMT PAM 00270 uses a second 12 hour hand and a day night indicator to keep track of two time zones.
Two faces. Another design created for displaying two time zones in an analog watch is to place one time zone in a sub-dial.
The Oris Artelier Worldtimer is displays a the second time zone in the main dials and the home timezone in the sub-dial. Keep adjustment buttons allow the hour hand in the main dial to be adjusted be increments of +/1 one hour without having to manipulate the crown.
If there is a drawback to this system is that it leaves the dial of the watch rather clutter looking and the main hour hands can sometimes obscure the view to the second set of hour and minute hands.
Time in an aperture. Another way of displaying a second time zone in an analog watch is to place the second time zone in a small aperture or window. Interestingly enough, this is the way two time zones are usually displayed in analog-digital watch.
The IWC Spitfire UTC displays the second time zone discretely in small window.
The advantage of this system is that the design is clean. Time at your current location is displayed by the main hands, while home is cleanly displayed in Arabic numerals in a small window.
Ultimately, watch selection is a subjective matter, and while each system above has advantages and disadvantages, which dual time system is best is equally subjective.
No comments:
Post a Comment