The Breitling Watch Source Forums

From my local jewellers blog.

Did you know?
Many Rolex owners have wondered, when gazing upon the roman numeral appliques of their watch dial, why the four is transcribed as IIII rather than IV. This IIII is known as the clockmaker’s four, and it is far from being a recent convention. The notation IIII was used by the Ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and later Romans. It was not until the late Middle Ages that IV came into use. When the first clocks were made, between the 13th and early 14th century, IIII was still in common use. Today "the clockmaker’s four" is kept due to the wonderful balance it brings to the dial.

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Breanach78

A Few Breitlings.

Not really Rolex trivia, and just one more explanation for it - there are a huge number of stories around why it is like it - some were discussed years ago in this thread - viewtopic.php?f=1&t=6382

There is a GAA sports pundet in Ireland, he knows all scores of all matches on all dates. He is known as the memory man. Roff, you remind me of him!

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Breanach78

A Few Breitlings.

I think IMO part of it has to do with the repetitiveness of the VI. Really does bring the balance to the dial though. It's funny I was chatting about this with someone on Instagram just recently.

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"I don't got the bright watch I got the right watch" -Jay Z