Not Your Usual Chrono Dial

[Andyclient]

Got this from a friend and just wondered about the dial as it is not your usual type of thing.
I'm guessing , assuming , that the red numerals from 1-10 and the fact it says decimal on the dial are just the decimal fractions of a minute i.e 60 seconds being 1/10 of a minute , but for what reason ?
Also note that the minute dial has extended markers at 3,6 & 9 minutes and the minute counter is 45 minutes , could this be a referees watch ?
Your thoughts please.
Thanks Andy

 

 

 

[StuartBaker104]

Decimal stopwatches were routinely used for industrial time and motion observations.

They made the arithmetic much easier when adding up times for sequential tasks, etc.

S

[Geo]

The 3, 6 and 9 minutes were used for timing long distance phone calls back in the early 1950's when you were charged in blocks of three minute. If you just went over a minute, you were as well speaking for the rest of the minute that had started as you would be charged the whole minute even for a few seconds over.

[Andyclient]

Thanks guys very informative , i'd never come across one before

[wls1971]

Very nice watch, the decimal scale can be used to calculate production rates in industry. If you observe a piece of machinery producing components you start the chronograph when production begins and stop it when production stops and read of the decimal scale. So if you stopped the chronograph and it read 48 on the decimal scale you then divide 60 by 0.48 giving 125 units per hour , 58 would give you 103.4 units in a hour and so on.