# 12 at bottom or 12 at top?



## PulpMysteryFan (Oct 31, 2007)

Do you prefer noon at the bottom or top of your watch face?


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## PulpMysteryFan (Oct 31, 2007)

(I hope this hasn't been discussed too much in the past...)

For me it's more intuitive to have noon at the top. (Even though I see some logic in putting midnight at the top.) I like daylight hours at the top, night hours at the bottom.


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## mythos (Nov 7, 2007)

I find it natural to start counting from the top, so 24 should be at the top on a 24 hour watch.

I don't have a "real" 24 hour watch, but my Zeno GMT with 12 and 24 hour hands have 24 on top. I find real 24 hour watches hard to read at a glance, and prefer the combined version I have.


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## philden (Jun 1, 2007)

This has been discussed a bit before. I am torn between the options. I like the idea of 12 at the top as it mimics the passing of the day well, but I also like the symmetry of having the zero point for seconds, minutes and hours in the same place.
My stronger preference is to have 0 on the dial instead of 24.

Phil.


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## Zennmaster (May 14, 2006)

Yup, we've talked about it:

https://www.watchuseek.com/showthread.php?t=42833&highlight=12-on-top

Personally, I can read either one just fine, and they both make a lot more sense to me than "Half-Day" watches or GMTs. I like the 12-on-top because it's the oddball among oddballs, and I kind of like that. I also like the idea of the position of the hour hand following the position of the sun (IE: "High Noon" or "Deepest Midnight". I also think Philden has a point with "00" vs "24". That's one thing I really like about my "new" Cosmo - There's nothing at the top of the dial, so you can imagine whatever you want!:-d

-Michael


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## Tommy in Scotland (Apr 6, 2006)

How about these three? A few months ago I made up two card dials for cheap 24hr quartz watches. These are variations on the previous uploaded dials.

Tommy.


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## PulpMysteryFan (Oct 31, 2007)

Tommy in Scotland said:


> How about these three? A few months ago I made up two card dials for cheap 24hr quartz watches. These are variations on the previous uploaded dials.
> Tommy.


I like the idea of putting a custom card dial on a watch. Where did you get the cheap 24 hour quartz watches to put them on?


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## philden (Jun 1, 2007)

See this thread:
https://www.watchuseek.com/showthread.php?t=62610

Regards,

Phil.


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## crfriend (Dec 26, 2007)

I had to go with having midnight (00:00 Z) at the top, mainly because that's the way that my two 24-hour watches have it. This also dovetails nicely with the hands being set to Greenwich/UTC/Zulu and the bezel being set to local time.

I've always viewed the 24-hour dial as being a navigators'/pilots' tool rather than something to set lunch-dates with, so having "zero-hour" at the top "just makes sense".


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## PulpMysteryFan (Oct 31, 2007)

On a "12 on top" watch I like the fact that the part of the watch face most likely to be obscured by a sleeve is also the least important part of the day. In other words, the least needed hours from midnight through the wee hours of the morning are at the lower left part of a "12 on top" watch. The (for me) most visually prominent part of the face -- the top and right -- corresponds to morning and evening.


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## crfriend (Dec 26, 2007)

PulpMysteryFan said:


> On a "12 on top" watch I like the fact that the part of the watch face most likely to be obscured by a sleeve is also the least important part of the day.


 The other facet in play with this is which wrist you wear your watch on. I wear mine on my right wrist, so the zero-hour on top exposes the afternoon beyond my cuff.

That's a good point, though; and one that I hadn't thought of.


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## MikalNY (Oct 17, 2008)

PulpMysteryFan said:


> Do you prefer noon at the bottom or top of your watch face?


Top of the face.


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## mjbryant (Feb 10, 2006)

Bottom. As on this -










...And it Keps On Ticking:-d


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## kiwidj (Sep 24, 2007)

mikalny said:


> top of the face.


+1


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## performa62 (Nov 7, 2008)

I bought a Tauchmeister 24h watch with the 12 on top. I say that having the 12 on top makes it a little tougher to adjust than 24 on top simply because the time when the face is similar to a 12 hour face is during daylight hours.

Between 10:00 and 14:00, the time is very similar to 11am and 1pm. This would be the opposite on a 24 on top when you're slightly more likely to be sleeping.


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## robalon (Mar 28, 2008)

Top like this one


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## chaadster (Oct 13, 2008)

Lots of neat justifications for either, but for me, since I think of the day starting and ending at midnight, and because I'm attached to the notion of "taking it from the top!", I like 24 at the top.


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## TimeOnTarget (Feb 11, 2006)

I have owned both versions, and I currently use my Yes Zulu with 12 on top with a custom 24 hour inner chapter ring while working. The hard part is switching back and forth between two different set ups.

My pet peeve with most 24 hour watches is that they are not lumed appropriately. I really like the re-lume that Dennis did on the Early Bird. I really want a purist SST, but I don't see how you can read them at night. Any thoughts?


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## whifferdill (Jan 11, 2007)

TimeOnTarget said:


> I have owned both versions, and I currently use my Yes Zulu with 12 on top with a custom 24 hour inner chapter ring while working. The hard part is switching back and forth between two different set ups.
> 
> My pet peeve with most 24 hour watches is that they are not lumed appropriately. I really like the re-lume that Dennis did on the Early Bird. I really want a purist SST, but I don't see how you can read them at night. Any thoughts?


Hi TonT - I think we can get a bit obsessed with the lume issue - the cockpit lighting or a red LED torch always seems to work for me! ;-)

As long as the hands and lume markers that are there, are sufficient to be able to read the time in low light, I think it's not much of an issue.

The SST has good lume markers by the looks of things - sufficient to read the time even at night and a quick glance with a torch or the cockpit light will be enough for you to read off the second time zone easily.

The MLV has a dial made for night viewing if it is really important to you, and if you have the bezel numerals custum lumed as Dennis once did on an Airman he owned - you have one night visible watch!

Re 12 on top - I have come to like that over the 24 on top set up - it just seems to make more sense to me ( high noon!).


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## SiebSp (Nov 1, 2006)

Midnight at the top, so 12 o'clock at the bottom.


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## TimeOnTarget (Feb 11, 2006)

The SST has good lume markers by the looks of things - sufficient to read the time even at night and a quick glance with a torch or the cockpit light will be enough for you to read off the second time zone easily.

The MLV has a dial made for night viewing if it is really important to you, and if you have the bezel numerals custum lumed as Dennis once did on an Airman he owned - you have one night visible watch!

For me it is not so much being able to read it in the cockpit, but when I wake up in the middle of whatever timezone I am in- dazzed and confused about what city and hotel I am in. As a matter of fact, I have been up for about 30 hours now, and I flew all night long. Home at last and into my own bed.


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## whifferdill (Jan 11, 2007)

TimeOnTarget said:


> For me it is not so much being able to read it in the cockpit, but when I wake up in the middle of whatever timezone I am in- dazzed and confused about what city and hotel I am in. As a matter of fact, I have been up for about 30 hours now, and I flew all night long. Home at last and into my own bed.


Sounds exhausting!

I know what you mean, lume is useful at night on those occasions, but I wouldn't let the lack of superlume put me off getting a watch I really liked - as long as the main time, or local time is good enough to read I am fairly happy - Of course, on a Glycine, it's easier to adjust the bezel to local time if you are travelling through time zones, than stopping and resetting the hands, and it's usually the bezel that has no lume. Most of the time I'm in the one time zone so it works ok for me. Your globe trotting job brings additional complications!


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