Last Modified Mar 2007

So anyway there you are wondering what 24 hour watches are all about. I mean all watches are 24hours no? Er actually no. I mean most digital watches have the option of 12 or 24 hr time but almost all analogue watches are 12 hour displays. That is to say, the hour hand sweeps round twice a day. Hence the expression a broken watch tells the right time twice a day. But what if it didn't?

I heard a good few years ago of a 24 hour watch whereby the hour hand took a full 24 hours to sweep the face of the dial. Now the story I heard was it had been designed for the space programme as it meant daylight was not a factor in telling whether it was am or pm the time. I feel I'm not explaining myself here well so I think a couple of pics will help immensely
A normal watch, 12 hour dial on the left but how about a 24 hour face next to it showing exactly the same time, or is it? It is the same time. 11:28pm



and here are both watches some 13 hours later both showing 12:10pm. Different no?



and again showing 9:00pm. Completely different.



The first 24 hr watch I bought was a Russian mechnical Vostock watch. Made from genuine tractor parts it weighed a tonne. Sadly the winding mechanism wasn't as strong and within 3 weeks I had over wound it and broken it. Silly me. The second 24 hour was actually bought by a mate and this was the Dolphin watch pictured here. Now this puppy is an automatic so it winds itself up, as long as you wear it. Not a problem for me as I usually wear a watch anyway. In the 2 years I've owed it I have had to manually shake it once to get it started. Normal day to day running keeps it wound just fine.

Accuracy is ok, looses about a minute a day but tbh it's not a big deal for me. Just a quick correction and away we go. Heck, get 4 people standing next to each other and I'll bet you'll get at least 2 different times anyway.

I actually like the 24hr face just because it is so different even though I still can't read it as quickly as a normal 12hr face. Strange but that's just me through and through. 24hr analogue watches have been kicking about since the dawn of time but rather than me repeat everything that other folks have written I'll just include a few links for your research.

AAA Watch club Some easy to purchase watches
24 hour clock Loads of info on the 24 hour watch scene
24 hour watch the first site I found on these watches