The Pointer Date

A pointer date moves the calendar reading from a window to a hand and scale. It can preserve a continuous dial surface, but it adds another central hand and another ring of information to read.

Follow the calendar hand

The pointer advances through dates rather than sweeping once per minute or circling once per day. The scale must make those positions intelligible. Oris describes its pointer calendar as an analogue indication on a corresponding dial scale. Oris pointer-calendar explanation.

A distinctive tip helps separate the calendar hand from the hour, minute and seconds hands. That distinction is especially important where the hands cross.

Balance clarity and density

Printing all 31 numbers is one solution, but it is not the only way to represent 31 positions. Selected numbers and intervening marks can reduce crowding if each date remains countable.

A pointer date also needs a different mechanism from a date disc seen through an aperture. For example, Sellita lists a dedicated SW221-1 pointer-date execution; its existence does not make an ordinary SW200-1 a pointer-date movement. Sellita's pointer-date specification, page 18.

In the atelier

Pointer date selects an explicitly named concept, not a stock NH35, P024 or an implied Oris calibre. It replaces the date window and occupies the perimeter normally available to the minute track.

Five printed date numbers replace their corresponding ticks; the remaining ticks preserve all 31 positions without running into those numbers. The hand follows the device date. The simulation does not model the calendar gearing, crown quickset or month-end adjustment of a physical watch. See date displays for the window-based alternative.