Watches-N-Time by Vincenzo Carrara

Author:Vincenzo Carrara
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: watch, watches, timepiece, time management
Publisher: vincenzo carrara
Published: 2018-03-02T16:00:00+00:00

24 Hour Clock Benefits

T

he most common wristwatches are based on a 12 hour system. In those watches the hand indicating the hours makes a complete rotation in 12 hours hence two complete rotations per day. There are other watches, however, that are based on a more natural 24-hour cycle in which the hand indicating the hour makes a complete rotation in 24 hours. Sometimes the two systems are used combined in the same wristwatch like in the GMT or in the dual time watches. The key question is why the 12-hour system is the most widely used and not the 24-hour one? what are the advantages of a 24-hour system based watch? And ultimately why do some people use 24-hour time watches?

For the purpose of this chapter I will generalize and define “pure players” or “pure” the watches that are based on one single system (either 12 or 24 hour) and will focus on those rather than the watches that use a combination of the two.

The 24-Hour Clocks

Back to our key question - why do people use 24-hour time watches? Some people just like them either because different or because they find the 24-hour based system easier to use. Others, instead, need those watches for a specific and often technical reason.

People who cannot see the sky or who travel across time zones might find a 24-hour dial very useful. Those dials can help them understand whether it is night or day at a glance. For example, explorers who have to spend time in environments without access to the sky (e.g. caves), in the “sky” (e.g. astronauts) or in places in which the passage of time cannot be easily grasped through the movement of the sun (e.g. arctic) might be the principal users of this kind of watches. Another immediate benefit of the 24-hour dials, especially for scientists and explorers, is the fact that those timepieces can be used very easily as a compass. Via pointing the hour hand toward the sun one can find the North position where the 24 hours mark is (midnight mark) – maybe the simplest way to combine a compass with a watch!

In general, the 24-hour time system is used whenever people want to specify the time precisely and unambiguously to prevent errors caused by confusing or omitting the AM/PM suffixes. This is the case, for example, of the military forces who use the 24-hour based system for all their operations – and this is also the reason why sometime people refer to military watch to talk about 24-hour system-based watches (mostly US and English-speaking countries). The 24-hour system is also referred to as the continental time and railway or railroad time. This is in fact the first system that has been used to standardize timing across geographies and the railway was the main driver of this harmonization.

Ultimately the layout of the 24-hour clocks is more natural, with the dial representing a full day. This kind of dial makes easier to grasp the passage of time as the day progresses with each half of the dial representing either day or night time.

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