First the left-hand veil of the ballerina's skirt rises to indicate the hour, followed by the right-hand veil rising to show the minutes.

WSJ: The Feminine Mystique of Watches

But that was soon under three feet of water as he waded ashore, a weary soldier still smelling his own vomit from a night in a close boat on a choppy sea, and whose kilt in the freezing water was floating prettily round him like a ballerina's skirt.

ECONOMIST: Bill Millin