Horological Meandering

Tactful & tactile watches

 

Tact or tactful watches - 'montres à tact' in French - are destined to remain polite and enable a discreet 'reading' of the time: this reading can be tactile, like in some of Breguet’s pocket watches, or visual, like in Svend Andersen’s 'montres à tact'.

But tactile watches are, of course, often much more than social devices: they are also, and more importantly, destined to enable the reading of time for the blind or visually impaired persons. They're also called Braille watches.

NB: as far as Braille watches are concerned, I decided to include only 3 brands (Seiko, Raketa and Wakmann), but there are many others and some innovative solutions have been invented. Please check, here on WPS:

• rovermark's presentation of his Arsa Braille watch
• Jocke -Bad Santa's presentation of The Bradley Watch from Eone

Best to you all.

A/ TACTFUL WATCHES

1/ TACTILE TACTFUL WATCHES

Here's how it works: the arrow placed on the cover of the watch is connected to the internal mechanism and is pointing towards twelve 'touch buttons' distributed all around the case, each one marking an hour. The pointer can rotate freely counter clockwise but, when turned clockwise, it is blocked at the correct time. Please, watch the video below, which makes the explanation very clear.

credit: christie’s












credit: sotheby’s


c/ PATEK PHILIPPE (47mm, circa 1865)


















credit: christie’s and Bogoff (photos 3 & 7)

















credit: Christian Bissener













credit: Wagner time for you









credit: sjx

d/ Montre à tact with a salmon guilloché dial









credit: indépendant watcher


B/ TACTILE WATCHES FOR NON TACTFUL PURPOSES (BRAILLE WATCHES)

The way these watches work is self-explanatory.