Clock face

A dial is used in particular for mechanical watches, but also in technical instruments, such as gauges to display information. Dials high quality wristwatches and pocket watches are made by Cadranographen.

To view the clock, the dial is divided into equal sections. Usually, the sheet is twelve times, divided to display the minutes and seconds 60 times to indicate the hours. To illustrate the classification are on the dial indexes (in the singular index, colloquially also indexes plural ) or it numbers, 1 through 12 for the hours, 0 to 60, often in 5 or 10 steps, for the minutes and seconds. The design of the dial is similar to the way that the sun takes in the northern hemisphere: the view to the south it goes left (east ) on, lunch is at its highest and turn right (west ) below. This explains the speed curve clockwise and that the 12 is at the top. The display of time or of complications on a single dial is referred to as an indication.

History

The history of the currently known watch dial begins with the development of the mechanical clock to 1300.

Early dials often only have a division into hours, often interrupted by a sub- division into half or quarter hours. This was the accuracy of the movement owed, the first watches had only an hour hand (so-called A pointer clock ) as the clock tower at the cathedral. Early tower clocks as that of Salisbury Cathedral had no dial, but a movement with bells for acoustic announcement of the time.

During the French Revolution dials were divided according to the republican calendar. The day was divided into 10 decimal hours, the hour into 100 minutes, the minute into 100 seconds. However, the decimal time could not prevail in the population and was abolished in 1795, while the calendar still applied until 31 December 1805.

Artistic interpretations such as faces without divisions or without digits are common. In aviation we used in the pilot watches for improved readability, among other larger dials with a 24 -hour division and often luminescent Arabic numerals ( Numeralen ) on a black background.

The decoration of the dial are hardly any limits. Occasionally one finds inscriptions that refer to the passage of time, eg Vulnerant omnes ultima necat (Latin, " all wound, the last kills. " - Are meant hours). Ornate decoration of dials reached in the Baroque period a first bloom.

The most elaborate dials have watches Grande Complication and the astrolabes. Here are techniques such as enamelling, engraving, chasing, skeletonization, guilloshing, paintings, painting, prints, Maki -e, pietra dura, Cloisonne, set with diamonds or applied 5 -minute marks of different metals used. With an open dial the number representation is often reduced to an outer ring to show the movement and its closing event, such as when Marie- Antoinette by Abraham Louis Breguet. In a skeleton watch, the dial reduced to applied indexes or omitted entirely, in order to allow an unobstructed view of the movement.

The largest tower clock face in Europe is located in the tower of St. Peter's Church in Zurich, the outer diameter is 8.64 meters.

The main dials of the world are located in the Abraj Al Bait Towers built in 2012 in Mecca. The four clock faces are pointing in the four cardinal directions and each having a diameter of 43 meters.

Occasionally other scales are mounted on dials, eg for total station or pulsometer.

The German word " dial " has been found as a loanword input in the Russian and Ukrainian language ( Циферблат )

Representation of IIII or IV

To display the number 4 as IIII in Roman numerals on dials, although the 9 represented as IX, there are several theories:

• The Jupiter - argument: On dials with Roman numerals, the 4 is often found in the representation IIII instead of IV A reason for this is that IV stands for the Roman god Jupiter ( IVPITER ) is.

Against this is the fact that Jupiter has hardly been revered by the end of the Roman Empire and the Subtraktionsschreibweise asserted itself in the Middle Ages, and it is uncommon in the epigraphy.

• The tradition argument: Many clocks use IIII because it corresponds to the representation on some of the oldest surviving watch. The Clock of Wells Cathedral was built in 1386-1392. She used the IIII because the Subtraktionsschreibweise became common only in the late Middle Ages and was used in contemporary manuscripts mostly IIII or iiij. These watches have an asymmetric dial with 24 - hour clock.

However, the tower clocks of the 14th century have different representations, the church clock from Ottery St Mary has a 24 - hour dial with IV and the St Albans 12- hour dial with IIII. The Astrarium by Giovanni de Dondi used Arabic numerals.

• The Sun King argument: Louis XIV, king of France, preferred IIII over IV, and instructed his watchmakers making watches with IIII instead of IV.
• The symmetry argument: the use of IIII increases the symmetry with the VIII of the dial. Furthermore, there are then only the first four digits of I, followed by four numerals V, followed by four digits of X, increasing the addition of symmetry.
• The manufacturing argument: Using the IIII, is required during the casting 20 I, 4 V, and X 4, while it takes with IV 17 I, 5 V, and X 4. Since 20 is an integral multiple of 4, is required in the first case, only one casting mold with 5 I 1 and V 1 x, which is then used four times: V IIII IX
• VI II IIX
• VII III X
• VIII I IX

Gallery

• Different dials

Dial a medieval Clock Tower, Colmar

Hand watch at the Freiburg Münster

24 - hour dial in Curitiba, Brazil

Dial a Zenith El Primero with Full Calendar

Pocket watch dial without indexes, Zenith Movado around 1985

Dial at St. Anne's Church, New Churches

Station clock in Kings Cross, London

Double Decimal Dial

Clock from the period after the French Revolution with " decimal " 10 - hour dial. To facilitate the transition to the new plan for the day, the old 24 -hour schedule is printed.

Rotating dial, 15th century. , Church of St. Mary, Gdansk, Poland

Tower clock face of St. Peter ( Zurich )

Shepherd gate clock at the Royal Greenwich Observatory with 24 - hour clock

Astronomical dial at Prague City Hall