No. 208Time4 minviews 81
Published by GK Library Annex
Why do watch ads almost always show 10:10?
It keeps the brand name clear and looks like a smiling face
Look at watch ads or store displays and you'll notice the hands are almost always stopped around 10:10. It isn't a coincidence; it's a setting the industry has used by convention for a long time. When the hands spread into a V, they don't cover important parts of the dial, and to our eyes the watch looks like a smiling face.
It's the spot that hides nothing
A watchmaker's name or logo usually sits just below the 12. With the hands spread toward the 10 and the 2, they don't cut across the logo; instead they frame it from both sides and make it stand out.
Date windows are often at the 3 o'clock position and small sub-dials at 6 o'clock, and at 10:10 those spots are clear too. The two hands are nearly symmetrical left and right, so the watch looks neat and balanced. It also shows the shape and length of both hands at a glance, which works better than 12 o'clock, when the hands overlap and look like one.
It used to be 8:20
10:10 wasn't the answer from the start. A 2017 paper by a German research team in the journal Frontiers in Psychology notes that, looking at old ads, 8:20 was common in the 1920s and 1930s. 8:20 is also symmetrical and doesn't cover the logo, but the hands droop downward and look like a frowning mouth.
After that, from around the 1950s, 10:10 reportedly became the default in advertising. The American watch company Timex is known to set even the second hand, using 10:09:36. There's also a rumor that the time honors the moment a famous person died, but it doesn't match the actual records.
Does the smiling-face effect really exist?
In the 2017 study mentioned above, participants were shown the same watch set to 10:10, 11:30, and 8:20. Watches at 10:10 got the highest pleasure ratings, and the wish to buy them was greater than for 11:30. Most participants didn't consciously notice that the times were different.
However, 8:20 didn't lower the scores, and a separate 2015 study found that the displayed time made little difference to how attractive or expensive watches seemed. So the smiling-face effect may exist but may not be large, and it's safer to say the practical reason of showing off the logo plays the more certain part. Next time you're in a watch shop, take a look at what time the hands have stopped at.
10:10 in ads is a practical spot that keeps the logo and date window clear, plus it looks like a smile.
Notes and references · Karim et al., Frontiers in Psychology (2017). 10:10 beat 11:30 on pleasure and intent to buy; 8:20 showed no difference. A 2015 study (Psychology) found no rating difference by time shown, so the effect size is debated.
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