Just bought this one. Ultimately rare, limited to 100, really unpractical and very exotic. The day has 10 hours, instead of 24. The hour has 100 minutes. In commemoration of the French revolution with the decimal time effective from 1794 on (but not long).

 

Beware of being late all the time.....

 

The first challenge will be to set the correct decimal time. If one does not want to wait until 24:00.

But 12:00 should work out just as well (= 05:00 decimal time)

 

I don't have any issue with switching from decimal time to the usual duodecimal time system ... thanks to my duoface pocket watch that was produced in the extraordinary period of the French Revolution, and in particular during the exact 500 days between the 24th of Nov. 1793 and the 7th of April 1795, when it was decided that each day would be split in 10 hours and each hour in 100 minutes.

This pocket watch was designed to ease the adoption of the revolutionary decimal system with both displays of time: the usual display (on the photo on one side



and the decimal time on the other side.

 

Impressive! Do you have a picture of the caliber? (I guess you need to take off the hands before opening it?).

 

Well, it worked so well for the French Revolution.

 

Wow. I had no idea. What did they call their hours? Hours?

 

They called their hours simply .... "hours" , the 1/100th of one hour "decimal minutes" and the 1/100th of one decimal minute "decimal seconds"

Unfortunately I don't have any picture yet, as I have decided not to service it: the watch works quite well in terms of accuracy (few minutes of deviation per day but who really cares!) and of complication with correct display of both times.
One day I may ask a watchmaker to remove hands and dials just to check if there is any mark or signature on the movement.

 

Do you know whether it has a verge escapement or cylinder escapement? One will probaly be able to hear that. I would guess a verge in view of the position of the regulator scale.

Beautiful and exceedingly rare watch, congratulations!

P.S.: The hands have apparently been set properly, because the indicated decimal time indeed corresponds to 09:07 "classical" time

 

Indeed, it features a verge escapement.

And you are right. Both pairs of hands have been correctly set so that noon corresponds to 5h00. Then, on the pictures, 9:07 of our time corresponds to 3h80min in decimal (revolutionary) time.

 

I'm simply amazed at the variety of time pieces you guys come up with - outstanding! If I'm not careful, I may actually improve my horological knowledge through these forums. Thank you for posting.

 

This is fascinating but it the difference really just as simple as whats printed on the dial face?

 

On the topic of “alternate” time systems, the Waltham Sidereal pocket watch.

 

A decimal watch would be a serious challenge when you’ve been down the pub and got a gutful of piss and bad manners

 

I wonder how a decimal second equates to a conventional second? The mind boggles … I need a pen and paper to work out how this aggregates up to a day!

 

It seems that 1 hour (decimal) = 144 minutes (conventional), 1 decimal minute = 86.4 seconds, and 1 decimal second = 0.864 seconds.

 

This would be a great way to mess with people.
"Hey you got the time?"
"Yea for sure... it's ... yea... I don't know."