No stupid questions!

Thanks for posting here!

If I try to answer your question very literally, I have to say that the best answer I can come up with is that the primary function of retrograding hands is to amuse the owners of the watches. There's really no pure functional reason that I can think of to have retrograding hands -- perhaps other than squeezing in an indication that wouldn't fit if it had to occupy the entire dial. For a central date hand, for instance, it's OK to have the numerals 1 to 31 all the way around the edge of the watch, but it can be equally attractive to have the dates cover only a portion of the circumferance of the dial, leaving the remander free for other things (or nothing).

And, it's fun to watch the hand snap back!

Best,

Gary G

What is the definition of Retrograde?

By: Karina : July 5th, 2011-06:50

Backwards

By: aaronm : July 5th, 2011-07:22

In the context of a watch it usually indicates a hand that does not make a complete circle, but rotates through some fraction and then jumps back to the start, rather then continuing. A good example is this blancpain the second hand, just above 6 o'clock,...

RETROGRADE

By: Karina : July 5th, 2011-07:31

THIS MIGHT BE A STUPID QUESTION, BUT WHAT IS THIS FUNCTION USED FOR?

It is a style of display where at the end of the scale, the hand...

By: Blue_Orca : July 5th, 2011-08:20

...needs to snap back to the start to continue. Retrograde display can be found on watches to tell the current hours, minutes, seconds, date, day of week, second time zone, etc. In the example below, the date is a retrograde date. At the end of day "31", ...