Seiko & Citizen Watch Forum Message Archive

I wonder if the true purpose of having a second hand with what you call a counterbalance really is to counterbalance? When we look at that Rolex Tudor, we can easily see that the mass of the second hand is not nearly equal on both sides of the pipe. The "business" end is clearly much heavier. This is true of other watches I've viewed also. My feeling as a non-expert, is that the "counterbalance" end provides a visual reference to the position of the second hand, at those times when the second hand is aligned with the minute hand.