Type “watches” into an internet search engine and you will struggle to find a picture of a timepiece that is not set to ten minutes past ten. Since the 1930s, most watch companies have used the default position in their marketing material, but the reason for this fixation has been shrouded in mystery.
One theory is that the hands are positioned to frame the brand name and logo so that the customer’s eye is drawn to them. A new psychological study, however, suggests that people unconsciously associate watches set in this V-shaped arrangement with smiley faces, which improves their mood and makes them more likely to buy the product.
Certainly there is no shortage of happy associations with ten past ten. By this time in the morning, you may well have eased into the day and can look forward to elevenses. In the evening 22.10 marks a moment of news satiation, a pause for middle-aged information junkies between the ponderous bongs of the ten o’clock news and the onset of the overexcited Newsnight programme. It is the perfect time for a hot chocolate.
The study, which was published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology, also suggested that people associate watches set at twenty minutes past eight with a sad face. This is unfortunate for Emmanuel Macron, whose presidential portrait featured a gold clock set to precisely that time.
The clock face is one of the most enduring symbols of this paper. Readers will note the masthead above the Times leaders in which there is a clock set to half-past four. It has been there since 1966. According to The History of The Times, “throughout Fleet Street half-past four in the morning had come to be the average time of printing the last copy of the night’s run”. Like the watch fraternity, we also adhere to time-honoured traditions.