[HN Gopher] The case for better watch typography (2021)
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The case for better watch typography (2021)
Author : nequo
Score : 21 points
Date : 2024-01-10 20:51 UTC (2 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.hodinkee.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.hodinkee.com)
| docandrew wrote:
| RGM is an American watchmaker with really interesting, often
| vintage-inspired typography on their watches:
| https://www.rgmwatches.com/
| zachur wrote:
| I love the style of these. Know of anything similar at a lower
| price point?
| jbandela1 wrote:
| People don't really care about of telling the time with those
| expensive mechanical watches.
|
| A quartz watch with a digital display is much easier to tell the
| time as well as more accurate.
| antiframe wrote:
| People don't always want the optimal solution for every
| problem. I want a watch that is mechanical yet accurate enough
| and readable enough to function as a watch. I am not alone in
| this.
|
| In the realms of cars, I drive a $15k used Subaru because it
| gets me places, is easy and cheap to maintain, and functional
| for cargo and other uses. Others drive fancy beautiful
| automobiles that do less, cost more money, but fulfill other
| artistic needs of theirs.
|
| For some it's cars. For others watches. For yet others clothes.
| I for one am glad that not every problem is solved perfectly
| efficiently. It feels _humam_ that way.
| ProxCoques wrote:
| Depends what you mean by "telling the time" though. How many
| minutes you have left from 8:58 to 9:34? Analog watch is easier
| for that stuff. Also approximations - quick glance to see if
| the long hand is getting close to the hour, the quarter hour,
| noon, etc. No number parsing needed, it's just gestalt.
| gumby wrote:
| TBH the benefits of a watch face with arms is that you read it
| via geometry without parsing. You don't even need the numbers in
| the first place.
|
| If you absolutely must know that it's precisely 14:22:04 it's not
| the device for you. But typically you only need to know that it's
| around 9, or it's not that close to 9 so you have some time to
| finish up before you leave.
| fellerts wrote:
| The article isn't saying that watchmakers should improve the
| legibility of the fonts used on the watch face though, it's
| arguing that pride in craftsmanship seems to end at the font
| selection when there is a huge world of possibilities. I didn't
| know that even Patek Phillipe has used Arial, that was amusing.
| These are easily $10k+ watches.
| joshuaheard wrote:
| This would be a great idea for an Apple Watch app.
| lxgr wrote:
| It's currently impossible to provide custom watch faces for the
| Apple Watch.
|
| This is somewhat infuriating, especially given Apple's default
| watch face options. They all look nice at a first glance, but
| all have some small functional detail that really throws me
| off.
|
| For example, what on earth are the minute/second subdivisions
| on most of them? It's not seconds, it's not half-seconds!
| What's up with the "UTC" watchface not being able to act like
| an actual "UTC watch"? And why is it so hard to get readable
| second-level precision on any of them? It's the most precise
| watch I own, but every new year's eve, I'm botching the
| countdown by having to somewhat eyeball it.
| CharlesW wrote:
| > _For example, what on earth are the minute /second
| subdivisions on most of them?_
|
| The "watchy" faces are minutes/seconds and divisions thereof.
| For example, by default, "Chronograph" is seconds and 1/4
| seconds, and "Chronograph Pro" is seconds and 1/2 seconds.
|
| On the GMT face, you can assign UTC to one of the dials, or
| get a UTC widget that works with any face that supports
| widgets.
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(page generated 2024-01-10 23:00 UTC)