Horological Meandering

The first subject of my exploration has been the hands of the watches in my collection.  I have been interested in looking at the differences between surfaces, angles, textures of the hands.  The cross-section of my collection shows a pretty wide range which are a good illustration of how different brands approach "hands".

Rolex GMT Master II: the hands are highly polished white gold (I believe).  Clean finishing and crisp, with good uniformity of lume applied on all the surfaces.  The "pop" of the green GMT hand and even coloring is all an impressive display of quality for the product.  Up close, seeing the different shapes used is visually pleasing - part of why this is so difficult to set down for more than a few days at a time.  Even at 10x magnification these are objectively beautiful and good craftsmanship.

Omega Speedmaster "Hodinkee": Omega's hands on this are more "expressive" and "fun", if it can be described that way.  The sheen of the painted hands contrasts well with the graining on the dial.  And the application of the lume is generous on the hour and minute hands.  Overall softer lines and angles, no polishing, and it brings a totally different vibe to the tool watch.  And I like how many different shapes are used, between the chrono hand tip with the yellow end, the red minute counter, and the white hour / minute hands.  

Vacheron Traditionelle Small Seconds: These dauphine hands have a personality of their own - razor sharp, cleanly defined edges of contrasting reflective and dark surfaces.  The rose gold is soft overlay with the light grained dial and the concentric circles of the small seconds register.  Some of the very slight imperfections are more noticeable in the painted track of the seconds, but I’ve never noticed them before, and probably won't again.  In my mind, these are what the hands of a dress watch ought to look like.  

 

Swatch Sistem 51:  Obviously more simplified, and to my eye less appealing than the others.  I included these as a foil for how different the execution can be across the range of simple machine-made vs. higher end construction and finishing.  The hands on this are utilitarian, and the lume distribution and performance is adequate.  It seems to be a metal layer sandwiched over top of the lume itself, and is fine enough to look at under magnification.  But for the price point, they work quite well all things considered.

Have a safe weekend to all.

AH

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