The case of the mysterious dot at 12:30

[Aroxx]

Somebody (sorry I forgot who) asked me in the WRUW thread why this watch has the bezel lume pip at 12:30. I hadn’t thought much about it but I don’t know why. Ever since then it’s been on my mind. Most 12 hour bezels I’ve seen have the pip at 12 and the numbers on the hour markers. Does anyone have any ideas? Is it a common or strange layout? Does someone else have a watch with the same bezel layout?



To me, it would make more sense at 11:30 or the normal 12 so the numbers line up with the corresponding hour.



Weird offset aside, the bezel is useful for tracking a second time zone. I’ve been setting it to easily read UTC off the bezel.



Thanks for humoring me. I figured maybe it’d be a fun topic and that someone here probably has a simple answer.

 

[Dsloan]

This lume pip makes my brain hurt.

But, I will die on this hill: 12-hour bezels are the most useful of all bezels. Easy to do the math to count up or down, can be an hours totalizer, and can be also used for UTC.

 

[Canuck]

Just a thought. Regions such as Newfoundland (Canada) have their own unique time zone which is 1/2 hour ahead of mainland New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia. D’you suppose that might have anything to do with setting the moveable bezel to accommodate such time zones? I doubt Newfoundland is the only jurisdiction in the world with such an irregular time zone.

 

[timjohn]

Canuck

Just a thought. Regions such as Newfoundland (Canada) have their own unique time zone which is 1/2 hour ahead of mainland New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia. D’you suppose that might have anything to do with setting the moveable bezel to accommodate such time zones? I doubt Newfoundland is the only jurisdiction in the world with such an irregular time zone.

And places like India and Afghanistan which are also half an hour off (not to mention Nepal, which is 45 mins off). If someone invents an affordable mechanical multi-time zone watch that can do 30 min offsets, they would make a fortune in India....

 

[Aroxx]

Dsloan

This lume pip makes my brain hurt.

The more I think about it the more my brain hurts too. Especially contemplating 1/2 hour time zones.

Canuck

Just a thought. Regions such as Newfoundland (Canada) have their own unique time zone which is 1/2 hour ahead of mainland New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia. D’you suppose that might have anything to do with setting the moveable bezel to accommodate such time zones? I doubt Newfoundland is the only jurisdiction in the world with such an irregular time zone.

I like your creative thinking. I wonder if that could be it. It also makes me wonder what other, if any, complications have been developed for that use case.

 

[TasMike]

Elgin appear to have produced some mysterious bezels. There is also this one (not my watch) that has a 24 hour bezel, but no GMT hand.

 

[watchyouwant]

The Lume pip is there instead of the black strokes. The Pip is 12 o'clock. The black strokes are the correct location, not the written numbers ...

 

[redpcar]

😉

 

[Aroxx]

TasMike

Elgin appear to have produced some mysterious bezels. There is also this one (not my watch) that has a 24 hour bezel, but no GMT hand.

This one makes even less sense. Thanks for sharing!

watchyouwant

The Lume pip is there instead of the black strokes. The Pip is 12 o'clock. The black strokes are the correct location, not the written numbers ...

Still seems like a whacky setup. It would make more sense to me if the numbers were shifted clockwise by one (dot at 11:30) so they hovered over their corresponding hour like I have it set in the second picture. But alas, that is just my opinion.

 

[Foo2rama]

TasMike

Elgin appear to have produced some mysterious bezels. There is also this one (not my watch) that has a 24 hour bezel, but no GMT hand.

looks like a 6117-8000 bezel replacement.

I think someone put the wrong bezel on it, there is no way it left the factory like that.

 

[TasMike]

Foo2rama

looks like a 6117-8000 bezel replacement.

I think someone put the wrong bezel on it, there is no way it left the factory like that.

I thought so too, except that the description of the watch is NOS and acquired from an Elgin employee. (https://shop.watchsteez.com/products/lord-elgin-ref-1500-day-date-automatic-diver)

...and there are a lot of them out there, they're quite easy to find:

 

[nitediver]

Canuck

Just a thought. Regions such as Newfoundland (Canada) have their own unique time zone which is 1/2 hour ahead of mainland New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia. D’you suppose that might have anything to do with setting the moveable bezel to accommodate such time zones? I doubt Newfoundland is the only jurisdiction in the world with such an irregular time zone.

I think North Korea actually set the Pyongyang Standard time to UTC + 8:30 between 2015 and 2018 to " break from imperialism". 🤦 What's more curious, the Korean empire actually used the same time zone setting in the beginning of the 20th century.

 

[Foo2rama]

Is Elgin raiding Seiko parts bins?

 

[Aroxx]

Foo2rama

Is Elgin raiding Seiko parts bins?

I think whoever it was smoked something before they did it too...

 

[Dsloan]

Foo2rama

Is Elgin raiding Seiko parts bins?

Or worse: Seiko mod parts bins.

 

[Seiji]

Aroxx

Somebody (sorry I forgot who) asked me in the WRUW thread why this watch has the bezel lume pip at 12:30. I hadn’t thought much about it but I don’t know why. Ever since then it’s been on my mind. Most 12 hour bezels I’ve seen have the pip at 12 and the numbers on the hour markers. Does anyone have any ideas? Is it a common or strange layout? Does someone else have a watch with the same bezel layout?



To me, it would make more sense at 11:30 or the normal 12 so the numbers line up with the corresponding hour.



Weird offset aside, the bezel is useful for tracking a second time zone. I’ve been setting it to easily read UTC off the bezel.



Thanks for humoring me. I figured maybe it’d be a fun topic and that someone here probably has a simple answer.

I think your watch belongs in the Unique Watches & Complications forum. 😵‍💫

 

[Aroxx]

Seiji

I think your watch belongs in the Unique Watches & Complications forum. 😵‍💫

I almost put this thread there! I wasn't sure how uncommon this bezel actually is. It seems from the feedback that it's not a normal configuration.

 

[Fish70]

Maybe the other time zone is on another planet?

 

[kohster]

Heh and today I just saw a story about a new version of that Seiko. https://www.fratellowatches.com/introducing-the-seiko-spb411-navigator-timer/

 

[Ron_W]

This gives me the pips !
But my money is the half hour zone tracking with that bezel. Glashutte Original Senator Cosmopolite also tracks half hour timezones, and VC also has one if i am not mistaking. Best bet would be a G Shock as no doubt that option is hidden in there somewhere.

edit ; easier to do with a watch that has a 2nd dial/dual time subdial on the watch.