RE9 Watches
After watching a lets-play of RE9 and dissecting the clocks I wanted to also have a look at the watches, partially because it seemed like both main characters were wearing them. and look at the detail! it's practically an advertisement!
...turns out it is an advertisement, Hamilton made limited edition watches in promotion with the game for both Leon's chronograph and Grace's wristwatch.
which, while really cool (and bloody expensive), meant there is not a whole lot to dig into? the promotional website even has the exact movement models listed, so no real room for speculation. but then!
Sherry has a watch! and it's not promotional! and it looks interesting!? first off the crown placement. it's at the 4'oclock position rather then the typical 3'oclock, which is not very common! (this is her right wrist so 12 is facing downwards in the picture) Some watches, generally called "driver's watches" use a 2'oclock crown so they can be worn on the inside of the wrist without hampering mobility while driving. this was much more common before speedometers, when you had to time the distance between milestones to determine your current speed.
This one also rotated the face, but not all of the ones I found did. I can't seem to find any historic precedence for the 4'oclock crown, but it is a choice that persists to this day in some designs. it does make the watch slightly more compact, but otherwise seems to have no real advantage beyond "it's neat". (which, when selling watches, is sometimes all you need!) Now as for identifying the watch I swear I've worked on a citizen quartz watch with the exact same type of face, no numerals and a studded crystal for each of the 12, 3, 6, & 9 positions, but I can't find any pictures of it! I was however, able to fin this; a citizen automatic in the same shade of blue with a 4'oclock crown! (it even has the same seconds had!)
The band style is a little different, and this one has a date wheel on it, but other then that it is an eerily close match! A lot of movements that have date wheels also have models that do away with it, so it is quite possible that a variant of this watch exists with a simplified face floating around out there, waiting to join the other two watches from the game in a complete collection.
I never got a close enough look at Zeno's wrist to be sure if he had a watch or not, and Victor most certainly did not, so as far as I can tell these are the only 3 watches in the game.
Overall I'd give resident evil 9 a 8/10 on clocks and watches? it avoided a lot of the traditional pitfalls that befall clocks in games like immobile pendulums or improper hand placements. And even if it was an advertisement seeing a watch so well rendered is always a treat!
