The Case For Better Watch Typography • Hacker News Board

Re: The Case For Better Watch Typography

#41

Post by ValentineC » Wed, Mar 24, 2021, 4:59 AM UTC

JohnBooty wrote: post #31

kijin wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very few watchmakers, even at the top of the range, seem to get typography right when it comes to day/date/month windows. They just print whatever gets the information across and call it a day. At best, they might match the color and add a border around the window. It's almost as if they only care about designing the top layer of the dial. The only well-known brand that consistently seems to get it right is A. Lange…

Japanese brands are even worse. It's polarizing, but a lot of people (including me) absolutely love the "wall of unnecessary text" on some Casio models. I can't defend it on any logical level, but I'm certainly not alone. https://www.watchuseek.com/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,onerror... https://bladereviews.com/images/casio/img-casio-dw-5600-01.j... Take any complicated Citizen watch and you'll instantly recognize the…

> It's polarizing, but a lot of people (including me) absolutely love the "wall of unnecessary text" on some Casio models. I can't defend it on any logical level, but I'm certainly not alone.

For people who grew up wearing the famous low-cost Casio F-91W [1], I'm guessing it might have something to do with nostalgia.

I know I chuckled when I clicked on those image links and saw the abovementioned "wall of unnecessary text".

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casio_F-91W

Re: The Case For Better Watch Typography

#42

Post by iFreilicht » Wed, Mar 24, 2021, 7:51 AM UTC

mrunseen wrote: post #13

Discussion on r/typography: https://www.reddit.com/r/typography/comments/m83d5i/article_... Similar article (originally linked in Reddit post): https://www.typography.com/fonts/decimal/design-notes Kind of off-topic but Hoefler didn’t actually design Gotham (and scammed his business partner Frere-Jones who actually designed the Gotham)

The decimal design notes were also linked in the article. An absolutely stunning font.

Do you know what the current state of the Hoefler vs. Frere-Jones is? I love the thorough approach to design they take with their typefaces, but wouldn’t want to license them if I know the original designer got scammed out of his profits.

Re: The Case For Better Watch Typography

#43

Post by iFreilicht » Wed, Mar 24, 2021, 8:04 AM UTC

jschwartzi wrote: post #10

I think that Hermes watch that the article thinks so highly of has an awful typeface. It's cool that they went to the trouble of designing something to work within their design language, but it's totally unreadable. It would have worked better to simply leave the hour marks totally unadorned.

Yeah, I’m not a big fan either. Especially the 6,8 and 9 are super inconsistent with the other numerals.

Instead of relying so heavily on circles, which don’t appear in any of the other numerals, a three quarter circle arc would’ve worked much better. The cut could then sit between the arc and the straight edge. even the eight could have this straight edge between the two arcs, with the ends of the arcs being the respective cut.

Maybe that wasn’t striking enough for the designer, though.