No doubt about it . . . the 12 should be at the top; that's when the sun is at the top; that's probably why we call is "high noon". But these are quirky watches, and having the hour hand pointing straight down at noon only adds to the strangeness of wearing one (and using it to determine the time).

The other way of thinking about this is that our day starts at midnight, and is divided into 24 hours; so, in the photo shown below (with the hands at 21:10), the day is 21/24 done; the dial does a good job of indicating this; so at noon, the day is half over, and the hour hand is straight down (half way around the dial). In other words, the dial is marking the passage of our 24-hour day (which starts at midnight), rather than following the path of the sun.

Jeff

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: it just makes more sense to me. the hour-hand follows the sun
: across the sky.

: i will never understand having 24:00 at the top.

: great looking watches, btw...regardless of dial orientation!