Ring Dial

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Customer Reviews

Great tool, fine detail Its a very very nice device, I enjoy it very much. The only bad part is that's a bit too expensive. The details are engraved and not painted, and thats awsome. Of course its all metal (I was afraid it might be with plastic, but its not) Manuel Tanase

Thank you for a great customer service I received my sunwatch carefully packaged and I'm fascinated with this nice device, besides it's really interesting, it is a piece of art, someting to be exhibited as decoration. Ok, my wife thinks I'm getting mad. She's wondering: what is this nutty man doing with that thing under the sun at every moment? I don't mind, man. I noticed I have a one hour less difference in my readings thru my Sun Dial Ring, and that's because Buenos Aires, Argentina is geographically located in the UTC-4 meridian, but we are currently using the UTC-3 time zone. Aldo

I just wanted to say thnk you for the Ring Dial (very nice) and the fast shipping and great customer service. These days, it's getting difficult to find an online business that treats their customers with respect. Thanks again. Jason Timmermans

Ring Dial

A Ring Dial - or two-ring universal equinoctial ring dial to give it its full name - was a cutting edge scientific instrument in its time, which is about 500 years ago! Essentially it is a type of sundial that allows you to tell the time wherever you are, so long as the sun is shining.

Originally developed in the early 17th century by the English mathematician William Oughtred, it was a development of an earlier instrument, the astronomer's ring, which was used for measuring the altitude of stars and also terrestrial objects.

You need to know your latitude, so this is the first adjustment that you need to make. Secondly you need to set the date using the sliding section in the middle. Then you rotate the inner ring until it won't turn any more, and your ring dial will now look like the picture above.

Suspend the ring dial by the cord, such that the sun shines through the pinhole in the middle, and hits the centre of the inner ring. From here you can read off the time. When you have finished, you can fold the ring dial flat again.

The ring dial does not allow for the 1 hour change in summer time, so you need to factor that in to your calculations. It can work in any latitude from 20 degrees to 75 degrees, in either hemisphere.

What is clever is that, unlike a normal sundial that needs to be aligned and requires you to know the exact direction of north, the ring dial does not need this information.

Needs no batteries!

This modern replica is made of solid brass, and comes in a small cardboard presentation box, together with instructions.

The dial is 6cm across.

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Made in EU

Price: £41.99 [$66.34] (Including VAT at 20%)

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