« A Stylish Detail of an Elegant Dress Watch »
The small seconds can at times seem like a relatively unspectacular complication. It is fairly common in the luxury watch segment and often reveals its charm only on second glance. There are both practical and aesthetic arguments for using it.
What Exactly Does "Small Seconds" Mean?
On analog watches, the seconds can be displayed in different ways. When the seconds are shown off-center, this solution is called small seconds. There is no such thing as "large seconds," however; the counterpart to small seconds is instead the so-called central seconds. The term refers to the fact that in this case the seconds hand is also mounted in the center – just like the hour and minute hands as a rule.
Originally, the small, off-center seconds display was found mainly on pocket watches and hand-wound wristwatches. The reasons lay in the construction of these timepieces: in the past, the wheels inside the movement were arranged so that the seconds wheel was not located in the center. If the seconds were to be displayed on the dial, the obvious approach was to extend the pivot of the seconds wheel far enough for it to protrude through the dial so that a hand could be fitted to it.
Where the seconds display was positioned on the dial depended on the construction of the dial.
It is most often found at six o'clock – in the middle of the lower half of the dial. The advantage of this position is that the dial looks symmetrical and balanced. The upper half of the dial is used relatively rarely for the seconds display, because that is usually where the watchmaker's logo and brand name are placed. Today, thanks to far more diverse technical possibilities, the design-related reasons for the placement of the small seconds have faded into the background, and in principle almost any position could be realized.
On an elegant dress watch in particular, however, the small seconds is a popular way to add a distinctive design accent. A typical example is the Nomos Glashütte Metro, where the small seconds hand stands out not only through its separate position but also through its red hue.
Small Seconds on Chronographs and in Combination with Other Complications
While on a conventional three-hand dress watch the complication with the seconds shown on a subdial is today usually just a purely aesthetic alternative to central seconds, on chronographs it has genuine practical relevance. That's because the long seconds hand typical of three-hand watches with central seconds is generally needed for the stopwatch function on analog chronographs. For this reason, the running seconds are usually shown on one of the chronograph's two or three subdials. Even on watches without a chronograph function, there can sometimes be practical reasons for displaying the seconds off-center.
This can be illustrated by the Oris Big Crown ProPilot GMT Small Second, which, in addition to hours and minutes, displays both the seconds and a second time zone. Some manufacturers render all four of these functions with central hands, with the GMT hand indicating the second time zone usually set apart from the other hands by color or other design details. With the Oris Big Crown ProPilot GMT Small Second, the brand may have opted for an alternative solution because legibility is a top priority on pilot's watches.
Here, the desired effect was achieved by having the white hour and minute hands stand out clearly against the black background of the dial, while the GMT hand, also centrally mounted, was deliberately colored black so that it remains as unobtrusive as possible in the center of the dial. Only the very tip is finished in eye-catching orange and seems almost to glide along the 24-hour ring running around the outer edge of the dial.
By separating this complication structurally and visually from the seconds display, Oris achieves greater clarity and better legibility on this watch. The small seconds was placed on the left side of the dial, while on the right, at three o'clock, the current date is shown.
Dress Watches with Small Seconds: Original Solutions from Chopard
While on the Nomos Glashütte Metro and many other models without additional complications the small seconds is usually arranged symmetrically on the vertical or horizontal axis, some manufacturers occasionally take a deliberately different route to give their watches a more individual "face" and set themselves apart from others.
The Chopard LUC 8HF Power Control, for example, is a fashionable dress watch that draws attention thanks to its dial design. Here the complication has been placed at seven o'clock, while the date appears close by between five and six. As a further complication, this version of the Chopard LUC Collection features a power reserve indicator at ten o'clock.
With the Chopard Classic Manufacture, however, the brand also has a model in its lineup that – very much in the manner of a tradition-conscious dress watch – shows the small seconds in a symmetrical position at six o'clock. An interesting detail of the Chopard Classic Manufacture is that the seconds scale appears relatively prominently on the dial, while the seconds hand itself is extremely understated.
