Trigger warning: OCD rant...

You just made my life more miserable now that I cannot unsee what I have seen 😭

I'm pretty middle of the road here.

I'm OK if the number is completely gone.

But if it is only partly there, that's when it's a bridge too far for me.

I simply don't like big arabic numerals and I almost LOVE thin golden roman numerals, that not just are painted... But tiny arabic numerals for minutes are fine!

My point exactly! No numeral is fine. Numeral is fine. umeral is not...

I don't own any watches with sub dials but I have to agree with you. It does look extremely untidy.

It does give the whole watch a "What else is gonna be half-assed?" feel to be missing part of a numeral

But big Roman numerals that are cut off is just as worse... Like the Kronen & Söhne.

I find a cluttered chrono charming 😅 So, yes to lots of numerals 👌

Numerals being cut off doesn't bother me at all. I'm more bothered by designs that make it hard to tell the time, since telling the time is the primary function of a watch.

I’m human and totally indifferent and don’t mind it at all that the numbers are partially missing.

I see roman numerals as a helpful decoration, so I don't mind if they are cut off and that make also the subdial clearer!

People often scoff at Stuhrling, but hey... no cut-offs on THIS dial !! 😎🤣

One should come up with a watch where all the numerals are partially cut off just to make fun of the practice. 😂

I like the cut-off numerals. My brain sees the chopped number and fills in the missing part, so in the end, nothing is missing.

Agreed. Why leave a chopped up numeral on the dial like a murder scene? Just savage and uncouth. Commit to the move, don’t half ass it like some teenage homework attempt.

It does not bother me in the least. When done right I like it.

It depends on the design. On some watches, it works, others, not so much. Like anything regarding design, whether it's a car, boat or watch, I find it difficult to make a deal-breaking rule that applies in all cases. Looking at this many examples showed me something I didn't realize, I find the truncated Roman numerals more offensive than the truncated Arabics. I guess that, to me, the Romans are more formal and demand a higher, more rigid standard. I also notice that I find completely covered numerals less offensive than truncated ones. Interesting. My eye tends to take in the entire dial (Meyers-Briggs INFJ, for those of you familiar with the personality test) and sometimes the truncated numerals jump out at me, sometimes not, I'm not sure why.

They just are. Makes my brain hurt!

Lok at the longines spirt 40mm vs 42mm. the 42 is just annoying to look at for me personally

I would have to disagree with you on this. I think that in some of the examples provided especially the zenith pilot, the subdials are laughably disproportionately small. It's a lot easier to just increase the case size whilst keeping the same movement and fill in the empty space with large arabic numerals.

The caveat to this obviously is some of the examples just omit numerals instad of cutting them off.

I think some of the examples of cut off numerals are passable i.e. the archimede is fine, but I will agree that the A.Lange & Sohne Saxonia is quite bad.

Ultimately my opinion is that it comes down to the execution of each piece and that I can't blatently state that all subdials that cut off numerals are a design mistake equally as much as I can state that all subdials that don't cut off numerals are the better design choice.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/737857552/greek-numerals-custom-wristwatch

Failure to process a Cali lies with the viewer, not the watch.

No numbers either. Well, on the subdials but.... 😋

It has to do with the movement design. If you use a readily available movement, subdial locations are set in stone. Sometimes the subdials simply will not fit. Now, if you enlarge the case diameter, you can fit the numerals to the outside of the subdials. Then again, that would take a 39mm watch to 44mm and then people would complain about the size. Just can’t win.

I've never thought about this until now. I just looked, and only one watch out of my entire collection even has numerals on it, and it only has a 12 and 6. All of my other watches solely have dash or dot markers.

Perhaps subconsciously I agree with you, and that's why I've purchased the watches that I have. 🍻🤝

Yup, it is something like this! 😁

I don't consider myself picky or being OCD over the details. But this irritates me. Why would they ever do this?

Gaaaah! The Lange and the Seiko! I don't really have OCD, but I don't like what they do with the overlapping. Longines did the same thing with their small seconds model and they literally cut off the top part of the number 6. Prepare to cringe on the photo below! And that half 6 is not even symmetrical!

Hodinkee redid this model without the numbers. Longines should take note!

I think it just depends on how noticeable it is, considering the IWC in your YES section has the 11 cut off 😉

Wow, you're the first to notice! I didn't even see it, so there you go. I of course now have to delete that photo, because I'm a total tool.