Ever wonder why clocks always show 10:10 by default ?

Time is something which we cannot control, we have to move according to it. Clocks and watches made our life a little easy and organised by helping us keeping a close note on time. But ever wonder why in every advertisement of clocks it shows 10:10 by default?


Whenever we go to buy a watch in a showroom or we see an advertisement on television or internet, you may have noticed, it is freezed at 10:10, but why?

There are some rumors about this, lets first clear that. There are many people who thinks the default time set by the owners to remember the death of Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr. but in reality, Lincoln was shot at 10:15 p.m., and died the next morning at 7:22 a.m., John was shot at 12:30 p.m. CST and was pronounced dead 1 p.m. and Martin Luther was shot at 6:01 p.m. and pronounced dead at 7:05 p.m.

There are some other rumors aswell, it is said that the Atomic bomb was dropped on either Nagasaki or Hiroshima on 10:10. So it is set like this in the memory of the casualties. But its not true.

So the real reasons behind setting the clock at 10:10 is

According to timex, they used to set the default time as 8:20 but it makes the clock looks like a sad face, to make their product smiling at the customers they changed it to 10:10

The manufacturer's logo is usually placed under the digit 12. To make it more visible the hands of the clock works as a frame.

Additional elements on the face (like date windows or secondary dials), usually placed near the 3, 6, or 9, won't be obscured.

So there is no historical reasons behind the default time 10:10. The companies found it is the best formation to make the watch more appealing to their customers, which later became a custom to show 10:10 on all watches and even digital clocks uses the same time aswell.

So now you know the real truth, next time when you hear someone telling a rumor about this, be the savior for them :)