How common is it to find Arabic dials on pre 1880 American watches?

Jerry Freedman

Not Common, most were hand drawn dials back then and the Roman Numerals were far easier to do.

I've wondered why the 4 is written IIII on watch dials instead of IV like I was taught in school.

Cristopher

It is said that the 4 letter IIII is symetrical to the 4 letter VIII so a IIII on a dial would look better than a IV.

Another (I think better) explanation could be this one:

The dials on clocks and watches carry on the old symbols of sundials. Sundials were used in roman times and earlier. The writing IV in roman capitals is similiar "JU". JU was the abbreviation of the god Jupiter (Juno). It was a kind of blasphemy to use 'god' as a symbol for an hour( in roman times) and in christian times when latin (roman) was the language of the church it would have been a unwanted remembering to the 'heathen god'. To avoid those problems they wrote IIII instead of IV = JU and this continues 'til our modern times.

Regards,
Gerald