Why do all watches show 10:10? The video guide

Chapters

1. 0:00Always 10:10
2. 0:10Before: 8:20
3. 0:25The symmetry of the V
4. 0:40Everything stays visible
5. 0:51In practice: 10:08
6. 1:07The smile, according to a study
7. 1:32Let's be careful
8. 1:56A time chosen for the picture

Transcript

Look at any watch advert. The time shown is almost always the same: ten past ten. It is no accident. In the twenties and thirties, watches were usually photographed at twenty past eight. Since the fifties, ten past ten has taken over. Reason one: symmetry. The two hands open into a V on either side of twelve, and frame the brand name, often placed just below, without hiding it. Reason two: everything stays visible. The date window, the chronograph subdials, the hour markers: no hand covers them. In practice, many watches are even set at around eight or nine minutes past ten. At exactly ten past ten, the minute hand would sit right on the two o'clock marker. Reason three, more surprising: the smile. In twenty seventeen, researchers showed volunteers watches set at ten past ten, twenty past eight or half past eleven. The watches at ten past ten gave more pleasure, and people saw a smiling face in them. Twenty past eight, a sad one. Let's be careful: the study rested on two small experiments, with forty-six and twenty-three participants. And a twenty fifteen study, on other times including ten to two, which forms the same V, found no effect. The smile remains a hypothesis. So in a photo, a watch at ten past ten is not out of order: the time was chosen for the picture. Now you know why. Discover it at Montres Outlet.