Here’s a selection of images extracted from watch and clock advertisements. Doubtless, you’ll easily find the common theme throughout the pictures, but the more pressing matter is, why does this common theme exist at all?
The common factor being, of course, that all of these watches display a time of about 10:09.
So why 10:09? Simply, because of this:
The time 10:09 represents a smile. A rounded face (the ‘face’ of the watch) with a gleaming mouth (two oblique ‘hands’ of the watch) will presumably make you feel more like buying the watch than if it displayed any other random time (or worse, if it showed 3:40- an unpleasant grimace). In general, the ‘seconds’ hand will then be somewhere between 5 and 7 to finish off the symmetry.
Digital watches marketed towards men have the tendency to instead display 13:38; straight, pointy lines compose rigid looking digits, assuring the male mind of the solidity of the product, in theory.