What time is it? Watches and horology

Arial is, essentially, a cheap knockoff of Helvetica, commissioned by Microsoft so that they didn’t have to pay any licensing fees for its inclusion in Windows, Word, etc.

In order to differentiate it from Helvetica (for legal reasons) they changed a few features, most noticeably the numeral 1 and the capital R (see pic). The main issue with Arial is that these changes (well, and the font as a whole to be honest) are particularly artless and ugly. It’s very digital-looking - the forms don’t look solid or substantial. As sans-serif “grotesks” go, it’s a shoddy job.

The smaller a letter or numeral is, the less you notice the individual shape. Very few people would notice any difference between a paragraph of 9pt Arial and 9pt Helvetica. But it gets much worse if you isolate the numerals, make them bigger and invite the viewer to focus on them. So putting them that large on the bezel is especially irritating (to my eye).

I really don’t mind or care if people in general don’t see it, most people don’t. The reason I drag watch designers for using it is because they are the sort of people who absolutely should see it, and care about it. Most of them are Swiss! The Swiss are supposed to be aware of, and good at, typography. And in particular, using Arial over Helvetica - the most famous Swiss font, literally named after Switzerland - is a bit embarrassing. I mean, I don’t think Helvetica works very well on watches either, or on most stuff for that matter, but that’s a different rant.

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