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The Encyclopedia of Horology

Watch family · Style & purpose

Doctor's Watches (Duo-Dial / Pulsation Watches)

Partially verified

Wristwatches with a subsidiary sunk seconds dial offset within the main dial (a 'duo-dial' layout) and, in many examples, a pulsations or pulsometer scale enabling a physician to time a patient's pulse directly from the running seconds hand.

Movement & mechanism

  • Standard wristwatch movement with the running seconds output displayed on a sunk or recessed subsidiary dial rather than a small dial flush with the main chapter ring
  • Pulsations scale printed on the dial, calibrated for a set number of pulse beats, allowing elapsed time for that count to be read directly as a beats-per-minute figure without separate calculation

Identification

  • Sunk or recessed seconds subdial, offset rather than centred
  • Printed pulsations (or 'pulsometer') scale on the dial
  • Often a simple, legible dial without other complications, prioritising quick reading

Terminology

  • Duo-dial — a dial combining a main chapter ring with a distinct offset subsidiary dial
  • Pulsations scale — a dial scale calibrated to convert elapsed time for a fixed pulse count into beats per minute

Known variations

  • Duo-dial without pulsations scale
  • Duo-dial with pulsations scale
  • Doctor's watch with additional respirations scale

Pocket-watch ancestry

Pulsations and duo-dial layouts were established on pocket watches, including pocket chronographs used clinically, before being adapted to the wrist; the underlying idea of a dial scale that converts elapsed running time into a rate (pulse or respiration) originates in earlier physicians' pocket-watch and pocket-chronograph practice.

Collecting notes

A specialist professional-use category collected for its distinctive dial format and functional medical association, generally valued on the same basis as other vintage dress and utility watches of comparable quality.

Related photographs

Detailed view on chronograph pushers and crown of wristwatch Rolex Daytona (cropped)
Detailed view on chronograph pushers and crown of wristwatch Rolex Daytona (cropped) — Alesili, CC BY-SA 3.0. Wikimedia Commons file page
Crown and chronograph pushers of a Montblanc Timewalker wristwatch V2
Crown and chronograph pushers of a Montblanc Timewalker wristwatch V2 — Pittigrilli, CC BY 4.0. Wikimedia Commons file page

No confidently matched photograph of this subject has been found yet. These photographs show a closely related record, and are not examples of the type described on this page.

Sources & references

  1. General literature on pulsation and doctor's watches; comprehensive maker-by-maker documentation is limited.

Where sources disagree, the disagreement is stated rather than resolved silently.