Mercedes hands are a watch hand style in which the hour hand has a circle split into three parts, like the three-pointed star on the Mercedes-Benz badge. The shape makes the hour hand easy to tell from the others, so the dial is harder to misread. The design may also hold more luminous material.
How is a Mercedes hand built?
The hour hand has a round part. Metal spokes split this circle into three smaller sections, so it looks like a three-pointed star inside a ring. The sections hold luminous material, and holding as much of it as possible may be the main purpose of the design. The round shape also sets the hour hand apart from the minute and seconds hands. At a glance, it is clear which hand shows the hour, so the time is harder to misread.
Where it comes from
Rolex first used Mercedes hands on the Explorer reference 6150 in 1953. Not every model had them from the start: the earliest Submariners had pencil-style hour hands instead. One writer thinks the design grew out of an older style called cathedral hands. Watch collectors and fans coined the name over time, because the hand looks like the Mercedes-Benz logo. Rolex did not choose the nickname. In its technical documents, it usually writes ‘Mercedes-style hands’.
Which watches have Mercedes hands?
Rolex uses Mercedes hands on all of its Professional watches, with one exception: the Daytona. The Daytona chronograph has straight baton hands instead. Outside Rolex, Steinhart and TAG Heuer also make watches with Mercedes hands. On each of them, the divided circle sits on the hour hand alone, which is what makes that hand easy to pick out.
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