Mercedes hands don't makes a lot of sense really.
As usual, drinking my morning coffee and playing with a watch and a camera is leaving me with plenty of time to think idle thoughts and this morning my half asleep brain decided that Mercedes hands on a watch don't make a lot of sense.
The other half of my brain went "huh?" and the following internal dialog resulted in the conclusion that they do in some cases and they don't in other cases.
For example, they do make sense on field watches, and we came to associate 369 dials with them. Taking the San Martin "absolutely not an Explorer" SN-021G as an example, it's one that is able to prove two things: (a) that you can scratch sapphire if you are persistent or careless enough and (b) that they are able to turn almost any watch into an Explorer look alike.
They are also very legible and a quick glance is enough to convince me that it's about to get something like 7'ish and it's time for me to haul ass and step into the shower.
However Mercedes hands don't make a lick of a sense on dive watches.
The most important hand to track during a SCUBA dive is the minute's hand because this is the one pointing straight at the timing bezel, and you'd better watch it if you don't want to end in a decompression chamber or worse. I know that with the dive's computers in use today it became less important to wear a watch, but this was the original purpose of the dive bezel and it was very much an actual purpose when the Submariner was launched.
So why use the least important hand for a dive watch to be the one with the most lume? It simply makes zero sense and I know that I'm not the only one thinking the same. Just look at the Yema Superman, or even better - the Seiko SKX and see for yourself which hand was given the most legible shape, and the most lume.
Why Rolex decided to stick with a less than optimal design for a dive watch is a mystery to me. Maybe there were some good reasons, maybe it was just a question of style. I really don't know and since my diving days are long behind me - I also don't care.
But it looks quite good on the San Martin, even if some alcohol may need to be involved before it can be mistaken for an Explorer.
I'm a big fan of watches that are interesting because they are either unique, have interesting features, well designed or simply offer a great value for their price.
It is so interesting that today out of all days I decided to think about Mercedes hands and here I find this post!
I’ve never really liked them until today, when I let myself be immature while watching some watch related videos 😂😂😂
Edit: Cathedral hands is what made me rethink how I see these types of hands
Any design especially one as obvious as the Mercedes badge made differentiating between the hands easier. Getting the hands mixed up especially on a diver could be problematic.
I guess the designs were based on then current tool watches as it was the very early days of dive watches (not including the first, the Omega Marine as it was very different)
. The shape of the Mercedes bit was to get maximum lume in without it falling out as it wasn't very sticky and prone to breakup.
Guess they've kept it that way (hours highlighted rather than the more useful to a diver minute hand ) because of tradition and they're known to move "Glacially slow" ...
I don't like the look myself.
Any design especially one as obvious as the Mercedes badge made differentiating between the hands easier. Getting the hands mixed up especially on a diver could be problematic.
Nothing prevented them from using a different design for their dive watches.
Nothing prevented them from using a different design for their dive watches.
True and they could use a different symbol other than the crown on the face. But why would they?
Can anyone tell us why Mercedes doesn’t sue Rolex ? 😂
They’re just a modernist take on the cathedral hands that preceded them. That’s it. Simple geometric shape, as was coming in at the tail end of the fifties and sixties in general (the decade that, for another famous example, gave us Aarnio’s ball chair) but applied to the slightly gothic, architectural look of the cathedral hands of the forties. Which had strong military association — though it’s only really the Longines entry into the ‘dirty dozen’ that has them.
The first Sub’s had pencil hands essentially, the most basic form, and on most of those other military watches of the time.
The fact it gets ‘more lume’ or ‘more surface area’ seems an aside to be honest — fundamentally hour and minute hands are always differentiated by the age old tradition of length, that also often carries into width — hence the ‘cathedral’ hand itself, and then it’s modernist, pure geometric descendant, the ‘Mercedes’ hand.
Can anyone tell us why Mercedes doesn’t sue Rolex ? 😂
Free advertising to their desired customer base?
I agree (this comment was sponsored by the Cathedral Hands Supremacy Society)
The hour hand has to be wider so that you can still see where it is when the minute hand is right on top of it.
To keep the hour hand slender and consistent with the overall design, a shape that pokes out from under the minute hand will show the hour hand. It can be cathedral, snowflake, Mercedes, round, whatever.
The other option is to have big, fat hour hands… like Seiko fat hour hands so they are seen under the minute hand.
I’m a fan. They offer another design aesthetic and now have brand and longevity status. Sometimes a design choice must percolate before one appreciates it. Case in point; GS on-dial power meter. Really disliked their dial interruption but now see value on certain configurations.
True and they could use a different symbol other than the crown on the face. But why would they?
Would that help make a better diver's watch?
The hour hand has to be wider so that you can still see where it is when the minute hand is right on top of it.
To keep the hour hand slender and consistent with the overall design, a shape that pokes out from under the minute hand will show the hour hand. It can be cathedral, snowflake, Mercedes, round, whatever.
The other option is to have big, fat hour hands… like Seiko fat hour hands so they are seen under the minute hand.
It's all true and it makes a lot of sense - as long as it's not a real diver's watch, which is kind of the point of my post.
It's all true and it makes a lot of sense - as long as it's not a real diver's watch, which is kind of the point of my post.
I mean, if having the hour hand have slightly more lume than the minute hand on a diver is an issue, I think Rolex’ slender hour hand with a small lume plot in the Mercedes is the least offensive of the genre.
Have you seen the size and intensity of lume on some of Seiko’s divers? Isn’t this a far more egregious violation of that principle?
Free advertising to their desired customer base?
I’m as cynical as you 😂
I have often pondered the same thing, the design makes no sense to me and sets my OCD alarms ringing with it's lack of uniformity with the minute hand. I once had a Tag Diver watch with the Mercedes hand and it constantly bothered me, I didn't keep that watch.
This is one of the reasons I much prefer the Omega Planet Ocean as a dive watch, the sharp and clear arrow hands are much more pleasing to my eye.
That said, the GS iteration shared by Davemcc above is a nicer version, less like a car brand logo and a bit more unique.
I agree (this comment was sponsored by the Cathedral Hands Supremacy Society)
What a good looking Seiko 5. I've never seen this one. 3 o'clock crown too.
What a good looking Seiko 5. I've never seen this one. 3 o'clock crown too.
It’s a Seiko mod actually.
I’m as cynical as you 😂
I like being cynical. It takes absolutely no effort.
It’s a Seiko mod actually.
Great job. That's why I've never seen it before. I'm guessing that's the original dial with CHSS approved hands.