The hands are rigid rods used to indicate the time on the dial of a watch. Three types of hands are generally found on timepieces. The thickest and the shortest is the one that points the hours, it is called the small hand. Next comes the stem that points to the minutes, it is called the large hand because it is much longer than the hour hand. The third hand, the one you see moving all the time and which is very thin, marks the seconds. It is called the second hand. There are also hands that can display other information: chronograph function, date, power reserve, etc.
Needle composition
This essential piece in a watch is composed of four parts:
- The "body" from the center to the end that indicates the time.
- The "center" or "head" where the needle is fixed by means of a center hole which is riveted to the vertical pivot.
- The "neck" is at the base of the head and body.
- The "counterweight", which is not always present, but is used to counterbalance the weight of overly long hands (usually the second hand). It is sometimes present for aesthetic reasons.
The hands turn from left to right, and have even given rise to the expression "clockwise". But why clockwise and not counterclockwise?
To understand the clockwise direction, we must go back to the time of the first time measurement tools, around 1500 BC. The sundial was developed in the Northern Hemisphere. The movement of the shadow of the stem, called " style ", allowed the time to be read. In this part of the globe, the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, creating a left-to-right movement on the dial, which was then kept to determine the direction of the hands-on watches.
