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The best 24 watch dial ever?

38K views 85 replies 35 participants last post by  Red Rover 
#1 · (Edited)
It is often said that 24 hour watches are hard(er) to read, and here is some truth to that, if only because of the many decades most of us spend seeing 12 hour dials before seeing our first 24 hour watch. Still, the fact that a 24 hour watch's dial 'covers' twice as many hours is, objectively, something which takes getting used to.

A well-designed and uncluttered dial goes a long way towards making this a non-issue, I think.

I am attaching two small pictures (one in low light with glowing lumes) of the best designed 24 hour dial I have ever seen, the Volmax Aviator 2623/1224830.

I would be very interested if you could post pics of the best dials in your 24 hour watch collection.

Many thanks in advance,

RN
 

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#81 ·
i was lucky enough to bag a Fortis Flieger a couple of weeks back and i'm still feeling the love big time. it took some hunting down and waiting for and i can't afford it as a daily beater. i keep livestock and handling of animals, carrying feed and shovelling of general (and some very specific) filth on a daily basis is not a good environment for conserving such rarities.

so i've bought a 2623 based Aviator as a beater and here's a comparison of the Fortis with its significantly cheaper Russian cousin.

up front, i have to say the Fortis wins hands down - which is a relief considering the price difference. the cases are the same size (40mm), but the Fortis dial is larger and that gives it a few advantages. first though, the Fortis user benefits:

Swiss auto movement 20 ATM W/R screw-down crown, hacking and quick-set date
vs
Russian manual 3 ATM W/R

Flat sapphire crystal with anti-reflective coating
vs
Gently domed mineral glass no anti-reflective coating

both watches came on a 20mm leather strap tapering to 18mm. the Fortis buckle is more burly than the Aviator, but the strap itself i quickly replaced with a Hirsch Liberty and carried the buckle over. the matt black Aviator strap is good though and suits the PVD case well.

i went for a black PVD case on the Aviator because i like my watches to be distinct from one another and from pictures i really couldn't pick a winner between the PVD and plain case.

both watches wear very nicely being weighty enough to have presence but without throwing that weight about like divers can.

on to the hands. the Fortis hour hand is more kite-like but at no point obscures the dial's digits. the Aviator hands are a slight disappointment. the hour hand partially obscures all numbers beyond 0800 and is a less pleasing shape. the minute hand's lume does not extend to the dial centre as on the Fortis. both second hands are good, but the Fortis wins again being slightly more elegantly thin, with a smoother sweep and a more pleasing day-glo orange that gives better contrast with the dial.

the Fortis dial is where the designer earned his or her higher Swiss salary. it's bigger allowing all even hours to be marked in full. even at 0600 where the date window could have taken priority and again at midnight. Fortis has longer odd hour tick marks that extend right to the tip of the superior hour hand greatly increasing readability. the typeface on the Fortis uses open sixes and flat-topped fours and is generally more clean and precise. the digit 2 has to be good as there are plenty of them in the top half of the dial and it doesn't fail. the typography on the Aviator is all round more clunky and industrial.

so while the Aviator is out played in every position on the pitch it still offers a good hard game and for me looks to be the perfect beater. the Fortis - i honestly cannot fault it. though i did read somewhere that it has a plastic movement spacer inside, but i'll just have to live with that.

two bad photos...



 
#82 ·
I like how you hacked the watches perfectly.
My brother trains and cares for elephants...talk about shovel-fulls :)
Nice write-up! Nothing wrong with a little plastic now and then when it serves a good purpose (like a spacer ring).
 
#83 ·
Great thread! I'm new to 24h watch and received this Aviator a few days ago. I was surprise not to see this model nowhere here in the listing since I think it's one of the easiest dial to read if not the easiest, so here it is. First, I'm very impress by the quality of this watch and at 45mm, it's a size that appeals to me more than a lot of 38 or 40mm models. The lume is great (Superluminova) and even the original strap is nice (the watch is on a SteveO bund strap for now), really a great deal in it's price range...

Living in a francophone province here in Canada, I've been using the 24h system all my life, so it was quite intuitive for me to read the time in that format. I think that 24h scale is the logical way of doing a dial :-! I'm waiting for my Glycine SST-06 GMT to be converted to the PURIST version and this is for sure not the end of my search for 24h watches, I love them.









 
#84 · (Edited)
Great thread! I'm new to 24h watch and received this Aviator a few days ago. I was surprise not to see this model nowhere here in the listing since I think it's one of the easiest dial to read if not the easiest, so here it is. First, I'm very impress by the quality of this watch and at 45mm, it's a size that appeals to me more than a lot of 38 or 40mm models. The lume is great (Superluminova) and even the original strap is nice (the watch is on a SteveO bund strap for now), really a great deal in it's price range...

Living in a francophone province here in Canada, I've been using the 24h system all my life, so it was quite intuitive for me to read the time in that format. I think that 24h scale is the logical way of doing a dial :-! I'm waiting for my Glycine SST-06 GMT to be converted to the PURIST version and this is for sure not the end of my search for 24h watches, I love them.



This dial has some good features that make it easy to read. The bold hour indexes for the even hours give strong reference points for quickly recognizing the time. Example, between 1800 and 0000 are 2000 and 2200, easily recognized, but by memorizating positions, not intuition. All 4 quadrants of the watch can be "learned" like this. I believe that the dial would be improved with a bold, but different index with lume at the odd hours. Some Glycine Airman like mine have lumed dots at the odds. The Fortis and Aviator shown above by sheapshearer have bold Arabic numerals for evens and a bold, unnumbered line for the odds. The Fortis odds are long and come closer to the hour hand. I think it is a little easier to read than the Aviator.

To me, the mark of readability is tested when the numbers are not visible and you have to use the landmarks. Using the lume at night is the best example. I think your Aviator is a beauty, but the dial would be helped with lumed, odd indexes that are bigger than those small dots.

The dots at the odds on my Airman make it easier to read, especially in the dark. They would be more functional if they were a little closer to the hour hand (moved toward the center) but the dial would not be as visually pleasing.

 
#85 ·
Night reading is the only negative point I have for most of the 24h dial. Like you pointed out, the lumed dots at odd hours makes it easier to read at night, but unfortunately, most 24h watch I see do not have lume dots or markers on odd hours... Your Glycine is one of the only model I have seen like that, it's also a beauty by the way.
 
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