While browsing a recent article from Watchtime, I noticed something that now has me confused. Many watches feature the "Réserve de Marche" complication, a hand or indicator that shows the user the amount of power stored in the mainspring, usually indicated in hours. The 'Full' or 'Empty' indications at the extremes of the indicator show the direction in which the "power" is going as the mainspring runs down or is wound up. A good example is in the A. Lange & Söhne watch below. The words AUF/AB (German for UP/DOWN) shown that when less that 12 hours reserve remain, the power is AB (down). When wound, the tension on the mainspring goes AUF (UP) until the watch shows 72 hours of power reserve. However, while reading an article on the Ulysse Nardin Chronometer Marine Torpilleur Military Semper Fortis, I noticed the power reserve indicator with what seem to me, to have the UP/Down indicators "arse about " as we say. Even the original marine chronometers by UN had it this way, as shown in the example below. High reserve is shown (in French) as BAS, low reserve as HAUT. Is there a logical reason for the way UN have done this, or am I not seeing the forest for the trees?
And just to confuse me even more, UN uses both versions. https://www.ulysse-nardin.com/fr/collection/marine
Maybe call it dial-maker error? Or, two different meanings of 'UP'... e.g., your time is UP when your watch has stopped!
My 2 cents: the complication usually shows remaining energy (i.e. highest number = full) but it can be reversed to measure from the opposite perspective of energy used, (i.e. lowest number = full, high = empty). With the 2 UN Torpilleurs you have above, the subdials operate the same way but the LH watch shows energy remaining, the RH watch shows energy used.
