Superfluous dial text

The Rolex ones are awful sometimes.

On the cheap plastic Casios there's often as much text as the Rolex or more.

And sometimes on g shocks it says Bluetooth. 🤦‍♂ That's like if the front of my phone said WIFI in big letters. 😂

If the text make sense then I like it. Name. Functions of buttons/modes. Place of manufacture in tiny writing is fine. Japan/swiss.

Any watch with a resumé on the dial is silly to me. I don't need a reminder that my watch is automatic, or has a 3-day power reserve, or can go in the pool. It's my watch, I already know that, I looked at the specs before buying it.

What's the point of printing the specs sheet on the dial? Trying to impress people around with 0.5mm text? "Yo check this guy's wrist, 42 HOURS power-reserve, pffff showoff" 😂

I REALLY wanted this watch, but just couldn’t get past the redundancy of its having to label itself as a moonphase. I know something probably had to be done to film the empty space on the right side opposite the brand name, but I just couldn’t abide this for some reason. Too bad, because otherwise I love it!

Doesn't bother me. On some watches it can be overkill, but if I like the watch and its overall elements, I'll get over a few words.

Doesn't trigger me at all. At that time were these properties important to emphasize, therefore the lines were functional and justified.

Crazy to think that the Seiko Turtle PADI (SRPA21/SRPE99) has 5 lines of text in the dial. I could really do with the Automatic on it, but that’s a classic Seiko line of text. The best part is that the text lines are beautifully balanced and it looks like an “X”. It even grants some symmetry on the dial when including the Prospex logo above the pinion.

I feel your pain 😉

Dress watch = less is more

Sport watch = lmk pertinent specs (like water resistance or dedicated movement)

Sorry for the excess photos. If it's a sports watch then I love all of the writing if it pertains to the function or the theme of the watch. So I love that Rolex brags on the names of it's iconic watches or that's they are superlative chronometer. I love that my Carrera GMT brags on it's functions as it does, it really seems fitting on a Carrera. OTOH, the Overseas is great without all of that and I feel it would take away from it's sublime dial. I generally tolerate less writing if on a dress watch such as my sbgy026 though.

Any chronograph with the word "chronograph" on the dial (this is oftentimes the preserve of lower-end vintage chronos) is redundant. I don't need the fact that a watch is a chronograph to be pointed out to me if I can clearly see the subdials and hands. I'm by no means the brightest bulb, but I know the difference between a chronograph and a shoehorn or toilet seat, for example.

Other than that, the vintage résumés of text on dials is cool in its own way. Low- to mid-level brands bragged about everything, jewel count, unbreakable mainsprings and shock protection. It's kind of like a tiny reminder of the stuff we take for granted.

Its the reason Audis are so wide now: they need the space to write the entire model name on!

I'm not sure why but I rather like the text on a Rolex. Oh, and Casio (it just seems appropriate).

I think Rolex doesn't need to brag (anymore), it would be more elegant and tasteful. Just a "Chronometer" would suffice. Or shall we believe all the other chronometers are lousy, or not certified, or certified illegally?

Overseas is perfect.

The GS is beautiful and would be more elegant without the line "Spring Drive". And the line "Japan ..." belongs below the minute track 😀

For the most part, I find that tiny things like a line of text that look huge and obnoxious on a computer screen basically disappear in person. I also don't think graphical balance is an inexcusable reason to include a line of text; seems perfectly valid. I definitely think some word choices are silly though.

Ruins a lot of watches for me. Especially because they use jarring fonts that aren’t a good fit.

This is example of the opposite, a clean design.

If BurmaShave ever comes out with a watch, I’ll buy it for ya! 😜

Another clean one. Android, says it all.