Arabic Numbers on Dials: Misleading

[SKSeoul81]

Originally Posted by steel4me

If you are using plain numbers, then just call numbers, why create this extra confusion of going through the trouble of stating "Arabic"???

Normally people will not refer to it as Arabic numbers, but as Rolex dials come with both Arabic numerals as well as Roman numerals, so in this case people use it to point out the distinction between them. However, don't compare yourself with the rest of the population... that's not nice for us.

Originally Posted by steel4me

By the way, I am typing all this and you are reading all this using the "West Germanic language", according to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History...glish_language
but we just prefer to call it English ...

You really don't know when to stop, do you. But you're wrong again, English would be Anglo-Saxon, which is part of the Germanic languages, as are German, Dutch (Frisian) or what has nowadays evolved to those languages, so to speak.

[Atlanta]

Originally Posted by DSJ

I respectfully disagree SteelMan. I think any educated person in the English speaking world understands the Term Arabic Numerals as 1,2,3,4 as opposed to Roman Numberals I, II, III, IV... The numbers are not "plain" as you state, but Arabic.

Spot on David.

[Lisa]

Originally Posted by steel4me

All I was trying to say was that explicitly stating "Arabic" numerals
confuses people.

If you are doing a math problem and I say to you
"Hey, by the way, you did this problem using arabic numerals", I bet you
99.99% of the people in this world will go "What the F#$%?"

If you are using plain numbers, then just call numbers, why create
this extra confusion of going through the trouble of stating "Arabic"???

By the way, I am typing all this and you are reading all this using the
"West Germanic language", according
to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History...glish_language
but we just prefer to call it English ...

I think that in "watch talk" we need something readily understood to distinguish the types of hour markers. It seems to work very well and minimizes confusion to say, "arabic," "roman" or "baton/stick."

What would you suggest?

[jdc]

I don't know about Arabic or Roman but this thread is all double Dutch to me

[BigHat]

Wow, what a thread.

[Lisa]

Why am I still here?

[Mwing]

i dont get it, the milgauss dial does have arabic numerals on the outter edge, am i missing something?

[Incurable]

Well, OK then... there are several opportunities to present registration marks about the dial and rehaut. The primary ones, however, mark the hours. I consider all others secondary to that. In the case of the milgauss, it's primary markers are stick (oh OK Lisa, baton :) ). The 5 minute markers are small text and, indeed, in English. Those have to take second place to the primary markers. So again, the milgauss has "stick/baton" markers when describing the dial...

[oneillba]

Moot point for me. I can tell time without any markers at all on the dial. My kids (all under six) always wonder how I do it when I wear my Movado. Silly kids and their digital mindsets. They are learning, however.

[Scooby]

um.....