'4 Wars'

Kimberly Palmer wrote a fascinating front-page story for last Friday's Wall Street Journal about what I call the "4 Wars."

It seems that watchmakers are increasingly turning to IV instead of IIII to represent the number 4.

Huh.

I learned in high school Latin (III years, IVyi) that IV is correct.

But historians say that IIII is probably the more normal ancient usage, and that IV didn't catch on until modern times when people began using Roman numerals as decorations and IV started appearing in textbooks.

The IV also appears on Big Ben in London and on the 151-year-old Tiffany clock adorning the company's flagship 5th Avenue store, even though John Loring, Tiffany's design director, says that IIII is the only correct usage.

Here's the article.
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When the Big Hand Points to the IV, Some Get Ticked Off

Traditionalists Say IIII Is How the Romans Did It; Striking a Proper Balance

Underneath the gleaming countertops at Tiffany & Co.'s flagship store, classic gold watches feature "IIII" as their fourth digit.

John Loring, Tiffany's design director, says he wouldn't have it any other way.

"You cannot possibly balance the weight of the VIII on the left by putting an IV on the right," he says.

"It unbalances the whole thing."

But now IV watches are sold at Tiffany, too, including models made by the tony Swiss watchmaker Patek Philippe, of Geneva.

The company has started using IV because that allows more features to fit on a dial.

The success of several new IV watches sold by Gucci Group's Bedat & Co., another Swiss watchmaker, is similarly challenging a central tenet of watchmaking that IIII goes better with VIII than IV does.

The new styles associated with European luxury and sophistication have sparked an outcry among purists who maintain that IIII is the proper way to represent 4 o'clock.

"We clock people maintain that the Romans marked their fours that way, so that's why we do it," says John Metcalfe, former curator of the National Association of Watch & Clock Collectors' museum in Columbia, Pennsylvania.

Historians agree.

"IIII is probably the more normal ancient usage," says James J. O'Donnell, professor of classics and provost of Georgetown University in Washington.

Though the ancient Romans sometimes used IV to save space, he says, the shorthand didn't catch on until after the Middle Ages when people began using Roman numerals as decorations and IV started appearing in textbooks.

Some horologists - experts on timepieces - theorize that the Romans used IV as an abbreviation of the name Jove or Jupiter and therefore wouldn't have wanted the name of a god to appear as a number.

Those in the IV league say it's time for a change.

"It's unique and different from the industry," says Christian Bédat, who founded Bedat with his mother, Simone Bédat, in 1996.

The clash over the fourth digit deepens a rift between European and American watchmakers.

While the Europeans traditionally have emphasized handcrafting and limited collectors' items, Americans have focused on simpler watches that are easier to produce.

Four I's was seen as the plainest way to represent 4.

"The American time industry was built on mass production," says Daryn Schnipper, director of Sotheby's Watches and Clocks department.

"There were production contests over how many could you make in a day."

As a result, some see IV as an assault on American design.

Using IV, says Tiffany's Mr. Loring, "would be completely against my intellectual principle of going back to basics."

"It looks terrible," says Fred Bausch, owner of the Clocksmith, an online antique-clock store.

"The four ones balance the VIII. If you've ever seen where it's done the proper way,... (the IV) really looks out of place."

Half a dozen Web sites have sprung up in defense of the IIII method.

The National Association of Watch & Clock Collectors maintains a file on the subject.

Many people unaware of the history or the controversy believe IV is correct because that's what they were taught when they learned Roman numerals in school.

Greg Sheehan, a financial manager for the state of Utah, for example, described the four ones as "elegant" as he browsed the Tiffany watch counter on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.

But, he said, "I've never done Roman numerals with four ones. I learned it's IV."

Marcus Riedle, a German businessman checking out the watches in the windows of a Tourneau timepiece store in midtown, said he, too, had been taught that the Roman numeral four is IV.

"I don't like it," he said of IIII. "I think it's wrong."

Officials at IV watchmakers in Switzerland also believe in the correctness of IV.

And it can work better on more complicated watches.

"As dials get busier and more things are going on, sometimes it's cleaner if you can put that [IV] in there," says Larry Pettinelli, vice president of sales for Patek Philippe in New York.

He notes customers are increasingly interested in large watches featuring dual time zones and celestial movements.

As a result, he says, the IV "may be something that creeps in more."

The Patek Philippe collection currently features two IV watches in its collection of mainly IIII watches: the Annual Calendar, which sells for $21,500 in yellow gold, and the Perpetual Calendar, which sells for $45,000 in yellow gold.

While the company doesn't disclose sales figures for each style, it says the Annual Calendar watch is one of its bestsellers.

"The real collector... may want one for their collection just because it's just a little different," says Mr. Pettinelli.

Mr. Bédat says his IV choice was primarily driven by a desire for authenticity.

"I thought it was nice to use a real Roman numeral so that's what I did," he says.

"I wanted to create a brand that even if it had been in the world only a few days, it would have an appeal like it has been here forever."

Bedat dials also stand out because they replace the Roman numeral eight with an Arabic eight, eliminating the need to balance a heavy VIII with a heavy IIII.

"On my dial it balances. It's subtle, and lighter than the four bars," says Mr. Bédat of his IV.

He says he has never heard a customer comment on the IV - though many notice the 8.

The IV also appears in some unexpected places - on the clocktower known as Big Ben in London and on a fall 2001, $65 Eddie Bauer watch.

Even the 151-year-old Tiffany clock adorning the company's Fifth Avenue store features an IV, despite the more traditional view of Tiffany's Mr. Loring.

"The basic way of counting is on your hands," he says, "and your hand clearly has four fingers to get to four."