Foreign News: For Dark Days

A new article, designed by shortage and marketed by need, appeared in Berlin’s battered stores last week. It was a pocket sundial. Named after the inventor, thin, blond ex-Scientist Dr. Rudolf Rueter, the Rueter Watch consists of a Plexiglas-covered metal disc with turned-up edges and a magnetized dial which automatically faces north. A brass needle in the dial’s center casts its time-telling shadow on two rows of figures (one for summer, one for winter) with half-hour accuracy. Berliners were gladly paying 25 marks ($2.50) for it; regular watches are not officially on sale, cost up to $1,000 on the black market. It was clearly stamped a postwar product by its tinny materials, its cheap appearance, and even by its symbolism. In contradiction of the old sundial motto Horas non numero nisi serenas (“I count no hours but unclouded ones”), the new timepiece works on cloudy days also.