Hand

An indicator, usually made of a thin light piece of metal shaped in a variety of ways, which moves over a graduated dial or scale. Watches usually have three hands showing the hours, minutes and seconds. Early watches had only one hour hand. The English watchmaker Daniel Quare is reputed to have introduced the minute hand around 1691, although it only came into widespread use in the early 18th century. The first hands were heavy and robust as the use of glass had not yet been introduced to protect the dial. Towards the mid-18th century, slimmer, more elegant hands were designed. They were hand-made using a file or chisel, and the holes were made using a bow. Around 1764, watchmakers began cutting hands from strips of metal using a hammer and punch. Later on, around 1800, they were cut using a press die and were often decorated with imitation stones.

Hands are given names to reflect their shapes or fanciful names by the manufacturers. Simple geometrical shapes are a feature of modern hands. Openwork decorated hands are known as skeletons. They are called radium hands when the openings are filled with a luminous paste.

Different types of hands:

Javelin

Fine diamond shaped

Large second pear-drop

Baton

Skeleton batons

Leaf

Alpha pleine

Alpha with counterweight 

Dauphine (or Genevan hand)

Antique Breguet 

Straight-body Breguet

Breguet Empire

Cubist

Roman

English Roskopf 

Louis XV

Louis XVI

American pear-drop

Paris pear-drop

Pontiff