Byzantine Time
Who wants a watch displaying Byzantine time?
What the heck am I talking about? And why? Well, for whatever reason, it came to my attention that some place sells clocks that look like this
Yes, there is a 24 hour and a 12 hour version, and both have 6 o'clock at the top position. But why?
Well, as someone that's heard a little bit of biblical readings, particularly around the Crucifixion IIRC, there are some references to times (third hour or such) that make no sense if you think they mean what we'd read on a modern clock.
Luckily the sellers of this clock spell out the understanding of time as used in antiquity.
In Byzantine time, the time of day or night begins nominally at 6:00. (In the days before mechanical timepieces, the times were adjusted monthly to reflect the position of the sun.)
With the clock dial rotated as shown above, at any given time the hands will be in their familiar positions, but they will display the canonical hour of the day or night:
- 1st Hour of the Day - First Hour/Prime (7:00 AM)
- 3rd Hour of the Day - Third Hour/Terce (9:00 AM)
- 6th Hour of the Day - Sixth Hour/Sext (noon)
- 9th Hour of the Day - Ninth Hour/None (3:00 PM)
- 12th Hour of the Day - Vespers (6:00 PM)
- 3rd Hour of the Night - Compline (9:00 PM)
- 6th Hour of the Night - Midnight Hour/Nocturns (midnight)
- 9th Hour of the Night - Matins/Orthros (3:00 AM)
So in order to make this more of a discussion than a TIL, let me say that I totally want a watch that shows Byzantine time now. Yeah, haha, I could just wear a normal one upside down. And I'm not bothering with a 24 hour dial because ain't nobody got time for that.
To my knowledge, no such thing is currently available. Would any other Crunchers be interested in a watch (were I smarter, I'd just get someone to fabricate a dial but never mind that for now) that displays Byzantine time?
Started as a quartzbro goofing on the mechanical snobs, wrote for thetruthaboutwatches.com, and lately started finding forgotten familial vintage watches in need of love.
A clock like this would be so much fun so we could fuck with millennials who are just learning to read an analog clock. 🤣
Very optimistic view of my sleeping schedule I must say 😆
Very optimistic view of my sleeping schedule I must say 😆
Well, this is sort of like how 24 hour time has a zero hour, so it starts at ~6am and the first hour hasn't passed until 7am.
It just dawned on me that their images both use the conventional 10:10 "happy hands position even though it points to totally different numbers.
You had me at “Who wants a watch?”
I think I'll wear my one dive watch with the bezel (it has the hour markers there, which I think is usually unpreferred but pfft) spun upside down and see if I can get into this. Unfortunately I can't really go around using this time schedule in conversation to any effect beyond confusion.
not too much less useable than my So Labs (which I love, btw)
#rolexeverybodytagsrolexforsomereason is my new favorite tag
A clock like this would be so much fun so we could fuck with millennials who are just learning to read an analog clock. 🤣
I think millennials has enough on their plate 🤔 What a time to be a young human...
I'm all for anything with a 24hr dail. That's just practical 👌
I think millennials has enough on their plate 🤔 What a time to be a young human...
"Dad...why do they call it 'dialing a phone'?"
I am totally doing this today. The beauty of bezel numerals all being oriented toward the center was never so appreciated by me.