« A Little Piece of Watch History »
Roman numerals marking the hour indices are especially popular on classic watch models. The Roman numeral 4 on watches, however, often causes confusion when four strokes appear instead of IV. We looked into the matter and uncovered an intriguing piece of horological history for our readers.
Roman Numerals Stand for Tradition and Classic Elegance
Over the course of watchmaking history, several ways of designing the indices on a watch dial have become established, each with its own visual effect. The simplest option is plain baton or dot indices without any numerals. They are found above all on watches with a deliberately clean, understated design and give the dial a particularly calm, uncluttered look.
When the indices are marked with Arabic numerals, the effect can be modern, but also playful or nostalgic, depending on the typeface. In many cases, however, Arabic numerals are perceived as easy and clear to read, because we use them in everyday life and they match what our eyes are used to. Many people find Roman numerals harder, since they hardly play a role in daily life anymore and appear mainly in historical documents, in inscriptions on monuments and buildings – or on watch dials. The latter is mainly because Roman numerals go especially well with a classic, elegant design, such as the one so popular for dress watches.
"IV" or Four Strokes: The Roman Numeral 4 on Watches
Take a closer look at a watch with Roman numerals and you may be surprised to find that the 4 is not shown as IV, as you might expect, but as four strokes: IIII. There are watches with a "proper" Roman four, but in roughly 90 percent of cases you'll see the four strokes in its place. The fact is that this style evolved historically and is not a modern invention. It appears not only on wristwatches, pocket watches and wall clocks, but also on tower clocks that are several centuries old. One widespread explanation is that in Roman antiquity the letter I also served as today's letter J, and the V also served as a U.
Countless examples of this can still be found today in Latin inscriptions on older buildings and on tombs. Accordingly, the "real" Roman four could also have been read as "JU." This, the story goes, was an abbreviation for the name of the Roman god Jupiter, who as supreme deity played a role in Roman mythology similar to that of Zeus, the "father of the gods," in Greek mythology. Simply placing his abbreviation JU among the other, "ordinary" numbers on a dial would have been blasphemy and was therefore practically out of the question – or so the frequently heard explanation goes.
Alternatives to the Jupiter Theory
As plausible as this explanation may sound, there are several reasons to doubt the Jupiter theory. One of the most important counterarguments is that the worship of Jupiter hardly mattered anymore after the decline of the Roman Empire. Moreover, subtractive notation – in which smaller numerals written to the left of a larger numeral are subtracted from it – only became established during the Middle Ages and was rarely used in inscriptions.
Some also argue that it is a tradition dating back to early tower clocks. These are said to have used the four strokes, and the style was later adopted again and again for the sake of tradition. That said, counterexamples can be found even among early clocks.
Just the Sun King's Preference, or Better Legibility?
Another explanation holds that Louis XIV of France, known as the Sun King, preferred the four-stroke version and therefore insisted that clockmakers within his sphere of influence use it. It is just as possible, however, that this was not a personal preference of the French monarch, but that very practical reasons favored this solution.
For one thing, there is less risk of confusing it with the VI, which sits relatively close to the four on the dial. Especially on dials where the lower numerals are angled or upside down, it is surely easier to tell four and six apart at a glance if the Roman 4 on watches is not also made up of an I and a V. Either way, the tradition of the four-stroke Roman four has survived to this day among well-known watch brands: you can see it on the Rolex Datejust 31 just as on the Pearlmaster or Chopard's L.U.C 1937 Classic.
Economy or Aesthetics: Two More Possible Reasons
Other historians believe that using a four made of four strokes was mainly a matter of economics. To cast hour indices for a dial with IIII, the I has to be cast twenty times, while four each of V and X are needed. So it is enough to make a single mold with four I's plus one V and one X, and to use it four times in a row to produce a complete set of indices. With three fewer I's and one more V, as the "correct" spelling of four would require, this would not work. Aesthetic reasons are also cited in favor of IIII.
Proponents of this theory point out that a Roman 4 made of four I's looks more symmetrical and balanced on watches as a counterpart to the VIII on the left side. Which of these theories is actually correct will probably never be settled with one hundred percent certainty. Different reasons may well have been decisive in different cases. Either way, the topic remains a fascinating piece of watch history.
