Design Stories 02 / 06

The California
Dial.

Two scripts, one dial — the most personal thing I know how to say.

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SW0284 — Story 02
Eastern + Western Arabic

The Dial Saturn Watches Studio Where the brand started

I am an Arab living in California, and I wanted a watch face that could hold both of those things at once. That is where the whole brand started — with this dial.

I Two Scripts

So I drew it as a California layout, carrying two sets of numerals together.

Eastern Arabic and Western Arabic, side by side. It was not a stylistic experiment. It was simply the most honest thing I knew how to put on a watch.

A vintage Rolex Oyster Perpetual with a California dial — Fig. 01 — The original “California” dial: Roman numerals above, Arabic below. Vintage Rolex Oyster Perpetual · archive reference

II The Subdials

The dial follows a three-subdial layout, and the 24-hour subdial is the one part that looks back to vintage Omega chronographs

the older, flight-ready references, not the modern reissues. I loved how those balanced clarity, mechanical purpose, and restraint, so I reworked that 24 hour subdial proportions toward something cleaner and more refined like an instrument

A vintage Omega Speedmaster Mark chronograph on a tweed background

Dual tone 24hr subdial Fig. 02 — Omega Speedmaster Mark II reference image

III The Numerals

Then the numerals told me what to do.

In both scripts, 1 and 11 are nearly identical and build no real structure; 5 reads too close to 0; 7 breaks the rhythm of the dial.

So I removed 1, 5, 7, and 11 — partly for legibility, so nothing gets misread, and partly for proportion, to keep the top and bottom from crowding. Functional typography, not decoration.

Hand sketches working out which numerals to keep on the dial — Fig. 03 — Construction study. Which numerals earn their place — and which get removed. Graphite on paper

The dial drawn with the full set of numerals in both scripts — Before Fig. 04 — Both scripts, the full set drawn out — 1, 5, 7 and 11 still in place.

The finished Saturn California dial with numerals removed — After Fig. 05 — 1, 5, 7 and 11 removed. What remained, for legibility and proportion.

IV The Whole Idea

Everything else on the watch was built around this face.

The dial is not a styling choice; it is the whole idea — a small, exact statement of where I am from.

“The dial isn’t a styling choice. It’s the whole idea.” On the California dial

Two scripts, one dial — the most personal thing I know how to say.

Time, Structured.

Next Story — 03

›Why K1 Crystal

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