Living With The Past: A Week With A 1940's Vintage Gallet Chronograph Watch

Quartz watch owners will never know about this, neither will most modern mechanical watch owners; but older mechanical watches ticked in an audible manner. Basically, the escapement releasing energy from the balance wheel creates a rapid ticking noise. On modern watches you really need to place your ear right up to a watch to hear it. However, before watch cases got thick, you could hear the faint ticking pretty well, even when your wrist is some distance from your head. To be honest, the noise is not at all unpleasant, and I am the type of personal easily annoyed by erratic noises. It is almost a friendly sort of reminder of what you are wearing. That there is a little operating machine on your wrist. It might not be something I want to hear everyday, but it is a charming novelty that I have come to sincerely appreciate.Two main things keep this watch looking clear and legible for its size. And these two things are continually overlooked by other watch makers, which is a shame. The first is a very thin bezel size. The larger the dial of a watch is in comparison to the bezel, the larger the watch will appear to your eyes. Next, the watch hands are the right length. This is of the few watches that I own that has hands long enough! Seriously. The minute hand of any watch should extend almost all the way to the edge of the dial. The hour hand should stop right at where the hour markers stop. Not near, but exactly there. If you notice, there is a marked red perimeter at the edge of the dial, that the minute hand follows exactly. This actual 'touching' makes a closer mental association with the analog time in my opinion, and dramatically aids with legibility. I am going to coin a term for the opposite of well-sized hands, which I will call "polite hands." Polite hands will now refer to watch hands that just aren't long enough but are still functional. Polite hands are too shy to intrude into the domain of the markers, always staying a bit out of reach. Polite hands are far to common, and need to give way to more traditional, full length hands. There, I have finally said it. Now go to work ye watch makers of the world who ignore this necessity.So even though the Gallet dial is rather small, it makes the best use of space, which adds to its precision and functionality. Another aid of legibility is the contrast between the hands and the dial. A silvery finish on the dial contrasts with metallic blued hands.