Dress hands and finishes

A hand is both a pointer and a reflective surface. Its outline determines how much of the dial it covers; its finish determines when it catches the light. A delicate-looking pair can become difficult to read if it reflects the same bright tone as the dial underneath.

Reading the silhouettes

Dauphine hands have a broad, tapering triangular profile, often divided into facets; parts supplier Boley explicitly describes that combination. Baton hands are comparatively straight and narrow. Leaf, or feuille, hands widen through a curved body before narrowing to a point. Alpha hands use a pointed, angular body with a narrower stem. These are families, not universally fixed dimensions. Boley's dauphine description and hand catalogue.

Breguet hands are recognised by their open, off-centre “moon” tip. Breguet dates the design to around 1783 and records gold and blued-steel examples. That distinctive opening is more specific than simply making a pointed hand blue. Breguet on its hands and numerals.

Finishes are another choice

Thermal bluing is a real treatment: NOMOS describes heating its steel hands to 290 °C to achieve the colour. It is not synonymous with every blue-painted hand. NOMOS Orion. Rhodium-style silver, gilt, black and blue should therefore be evaluated as visual choices separately from any physical material claim.

In the atelier

The hand-set control establishes a pair; Individual hands & seconds lets you vary supported hour and minute silhouettes. Match trim follows the furniture colour, while the overrides allow a deliberate contrast. The geometry and metallic response are stylised: the Breguet-inspired opening is not an exact maker profile, and the colours do not simulate plating thickness or thermal chemistry. Previewing a pair also does not verify that real mounting holes, hand lengths or clearances fit the selected movement.

On the shaped cases, hands remain rigid with a fixed length that clears the complete sweep. A narrow oval therefore cannot use its long axis alone to determine minute-hand reach. Hands do not stretch or telescope as they turn; an incompatible pair is rejected by the face-fit check. The resulting clearances describe this original model, not interchangeable manufacturer hand sets.