"watch words"
"Watch Words" is the venue where LTFL will share various thoughts of interest to both the beginning collector and serious watch enthusiasts. A glossary of commonly used watch terms follows a discussion of some watch elements:
To protect the movement and dial, most watch cases are made of metal. Stainless steel is the most popular metal used in better watches. Stainless is attractive and resists both tarnish and discoloration. However, titanium is gaining in popularity as a material for men's watches. Titanium is durable as stainless steel but lighter. Gold sets the standard for truly luxurious watches. Watchmakers craft these models in 14k, 18k or 22k gold of yellow, rose and white hues.
Watch bands are available in many materials and feature two distinct styles: the bracelet and the strap. A bracelet is a series of interlocking metal links. A strap is leather, fabric, nylon, rubber or synthetic. Leather and fine animal skins, such as lizard or alligator, add beauty to a casual everyday watch or a dress watch. Some timepieces also feature fine faux leather or fabric straps. Avoid exposing a leather or fabric strap to water and perspiration. Sports watches are designed for outdoor activities and generally feature a durable rubber strap, nylon strap or a metal bracelet.
"Movement" refers to the interior mechanism of the watch that drives the timekeeping functions; in other words, the watch engine. Watches have quartz, mechanical or automatic movements. A quartz movement is powered by a battery. In this design, a vibrating quartz crystal drives a step motor to move the hands at a constant rate. Passing an electric current through the crystal keeps it oscillating at over 32,000 vibrations per second, which makes the movement extremely reliable. Quartz movement is also a cost effective design for the manufacturer, and the most affordable watches usually have this feature. Swiss quartz combines the movement with the chassis and jewels of a mechanical watch to form the most accurate and most durable quartz watches. On average, the battery needs to be changed every 1.5 years; however, a few quartz watches have solar-powered rechargeable batteries. A mechanical movement uses a spring that must be wound by hand using the crown. The spring slowly unwinds to release the energy that powers the timekeeping functions. Consumers who appreciate the skill of gifted watchmakers choose these fine watches for their intricate composite of gears and other parts. Well built mechanical watches can last for generations. Automatic watches (also called self-winding) have mechanical movements that harness the energy produced by the wearer's arm to wind the spring. Thus, the wearer does not need to manually wind the watch every day; however, it is recommended that you manually wind the movement every two weeks or use a watch winder. Also, adjust the time once a month as automatic and mechanical movements can gain or lose a few minutes per month.
Good watches are examples of fine craftsmanship and will last for decades with proper care. Clean a watch regularly with a soft cloth to remove dirt and oils and use a mild soap and water solution to clean metal bracelets. Avoid exposing your watch to extreme hot or cold temperatures. Even water-resistant timepieces should not be worn in a hot tub or hot shower. Chlorine, perfumes, and other chemicals may damage the finishes and sealants. Always rinse a water-resistant watch in fresh water after swimming or snorkeling. Finally, keep the watch case away from magnets; they can damage the movement of quartz watches.
Glossary:
Analog: The traditional dial; keeping time with hands.
Aperture: The date display window on a watch dial.
Automatic Movement / Automatic Winding (also called self-winding) - A mechanically powered watch that is wound by the motion of the wearer's arm rather than through turning the winding stem (manual mechanical). In response to this motion, a rotor turns and winds the watch's mainspring. Most automatic watches have at least 36 hours of power reserve. If an automatic watch is not worn for a day or two, it will wind down and need to be wound by hand to get it started again.
Band: The cuff that wraps around the wrist making the piece a wrist watch. Metal bands are called bracelets. Leather, rubber or fabric bands are called watch straps.
Bezel - The retaining ring in which the crystal or glass is mounted. It forms part of the case and was usually hinged to the main body until about 1880, after which screw-threaded or snap-on bezels gradually came into use.
Bracelet - A bracelet is the flexible metal band consisting of assembled links, usually in the same style as the watchcase. Detachable links change the length of the bracelet. Bracelets can be made of stainless steel, sterling silver, gold, or a combination.
Case: Frame that houses the watch mechanism.
Calendar: Displays featuring the day, date or year in addition to the hour; analog watch dials show this feature in apertures or subdials.
Caliber: The configuration and size of the watch movement.
Case Back: A removable cover that allows access to the internal mechanism of a watch.
Chronograph - A watch that is both a normal timekeeper and a stop-watch. Invented by Henri Piguet in 1861, it was a large watch with a center seconds hand and a slider on the edge of the case to operate the stop-work. Today, it refers to a multifunction sport watch with a stopwatch function. Most have two or three subdials, or minidials, for measuring seconds, minutes and hours. When used in conjunction with specialized scales on the watch dial it can perform many different functions, such as determining speed or distance. Some can time more than one event at a time ).
Chronometer - This term refers to a precision watch that is tested in various temperatures and positions, thus meeting the accuracy standards set by C.O.S.C. in Switzerland. These watches are provided with a chronometer certifcate detailing specific test results by the C.O.S.C.
Complications - any feature beyond the simple display of hours, minutes, and seconds in a timepiece. A timepiece indicating only hours, minutes, and seconds is otherwise known as a simple movement. Common additions such as day/date displays, chronographs, and automatic winding mechanisms are usually not sufficient to permit a movement to be called complicated. Moreover, that a watch movement may be a Certified Chronometer does not itself count as a complication.
C.O.S.C. - Control Officile Suisse de Chronometers or Swiss Controle Officiel des Cronometres- the independent Swiss regulatory organization that rigorously tests and certifies (or fails) watch movements for chronometer status. Only 3 percent of watches produced in Switzerland are "chronometer-certified." To achieve this highly coveted certification, the movements are subjected to numerous tests over a period of 15 consecutive days and nights, in five positions and at three different temperatures.
Clasp: The hardware that fastens the band together; a buckle.
Crown - Also called a stem or pin, a crown is the knob/button on the outside of the watch case that is used to set the time and date. In a mechanical watch the crown also winds the mainspring. In this case it is also called a "winding stem". A screw in (or screw down) crown is used to make a watch more water resistant. The crown actually screws into the case, dramatically increasing the water-tightness of the watch.
Crystal - The cover over the watch dial is called the crystal. There are three types of crystals commonly used in watches: acrylic crystal is an inexpensive plastic that allows shallow scratches to be buffed out. Mineral crystal is composed of several elements that are heat-treated to create an unusual hardness that aids in resisting scratches. Sapphire crystal is the most expensive and durable, approximately three times harder than mineral crystals and 20 times harder than acrylic crystals. A non-reflective coating on some sport styles prevents glare.
Deployment Buckle - A three-folding enclosure that secures the two ends of the bracelet and allows enough room for placing the watch on the wrist when fully deployed. When closed, the buckle covers the two-piece folding mechanism.
Dial - The dial, often referred to as the face is usually marked with numbers or batons to which the hands point in order for the wearer to tell the correct time. Dials may be minimalist with no markers at all or extremely complex as in the case of pilots' chronographs. Dials may be decorated with patterns or in some cases with precious stones.
Digital: A dial that shows the time and other features in a LCD (liquid crystal display) or LED (light emitting diode) display. This feature is useful displaying information on a multifunction watch.
Dual Time: A display that shows two time zones on the dial. The feature can have two dials, a subdial placed in the main dial, or analog and digital displays on the same watch.
Flyback - A flyback chronograph usually has the usual crown at 3 o'clock and 2 pushpieces at 2 and 4 o'clock. Usually the flyback function is controlled by the button at 4 o'clock whereas the one at 2 o'clock is used to stop the chronograph.
GMT Timezone - GMT (Greenwich Mean Time), also known as Zulu Time, as set to the international clock in Greenwich, England, reflects, through an additional hour hand, the world time on a 24-hour scale and is used by pilots worldwide.
Gold, Rose Gold, Yellow Gold, and White Gold - The only natural form of gold is yellow gold. But since gold is too soft in its pure form to make jewelry, it is normally made into an alloy by mixing it with other metals. The portion of pure gold to other metals determines the Karat rating. 24K is pure gold. 18K is 75% pure. The exact nature of the other metals used determines the color. A moderate amount of copper in the alloy creates Rose Gold. A moderate amount of palladium and nickel creates white gold.
Guilloché - A surface decoration usually applied to the dial and the rotor using a grooving tool with a sharp tip, such as a rose engine , to cut an even pattern onto a level surface.
Horology - The science or art of measuring time, including the art of designing and constructing timepieces. It's a science that started back in the days of the Babylonians, who came up with the idea for the 60-second minutes and 60-minute hours we use now.
Jewels: The jewels form the bearings in a mechanical or automatic watch. The movement generally will have at least 17 jewels.
Kinetic: A watch mechanism or battery that is powered by natural movements of the wearer's arm. A quartz watch with kinetic movement never needs a new battery.
Lap Timer: A chronograph function that measures segments of a race; it can stop to show the time for each lap without losing track of the total race time.
Lugs: The hardware that connects the case to the watch band.
Manual Winding - Refers to a watch with a manual mechanical movement, which needs to be wound by the wearer using the winding crown. This winds the mainspring up which then releases its energy to power the watch.
Mechanical Movement - A movement based on a mainspring which when wound slowly unwinds the spring in an even motion to provide accurate timekeeping. As opposed to a manual mechanical watch which needs to be wound on a consistent basis, an automatic mechanical requires no winding because of the rotor, which winds the mainspring every time you move your wrist (see our section on automatic watch maintenance for more details).
Moon Phase - An aperture or subsidiary dial which shows the progression of the moon. A regular rotation of the moon is once around the earth every 29 days, 12 hours and 44 minutes. Once set, the moon phase indicator accurately displays the phase of the moon. The term is often used to describe a day/night indicator.
Mother-of-Pearl - Iridescent milky interior shell of the freshwater mollusk that is sliced thin and used on watch dials. While most have a milky white luster, mother-of-pearl also comes in other colors such as silvery gray, gray blue, pink and salmon.
Movement - The means by which a watch keeps time, often including the power source. For example, a watch with mechanical movement uses a spinning balance wheel powered by a tightly wound spring, whereas a watch with quartz movement measures the vibrations in a piece of quartz and often is powered by a battery.
Perpetual Calendar: Automatically resets the day at the end of the month or year, including leap years.
Power Reserve - A measure of the amount of time a watch will run after being fully powered or wound, with no additional power input. Normally, this means when a mechanical watch is fully wound or a quartz watch has a brand new battery. Many modern mechanical watches have a power reserve of 40 hours. Power reserve also applies to battery-less quartz watches, which may have power reserves from 40 hours to 6 months. On battery-operated quartz watches, the term is sometimes used to refer to the expected battery life--typically 12 to 32 months.
Power Reserve Indicator - (originally called Réserve de Marche) A feature that shows when the watch will soon need a new battery or winding. A battery reserve indicator on a quartz watch informs the wearer when the battery is low.
Quartz - Timekeeping’s technical revolution found its way to the world’s wrists in the late 1960’s. This was principally a Swiss invention (the first working quartz watches were made by Girard-Perregaux and Piaget in a Swiss joint venture) but it was the Japenese firms, primarily Seiko, who were the first to see the advantages of the new technology and came to dominate the market. The quartz movement uses the famously stable vibration frequency of a quartz crystal subjected to the electronic tension (usually 32,868Hz) as its norm The power comes from a battery that must be replaced about every 2-3 years. In recent years, new quartz technology enables the watch to recharge itself without battery replacement. This power is generated via body motion similar to an automatic mechanical watch, or powered by light through a solar cell (Kinetic & solar-tech).
Retrograde - A hand which passes through the arc of a graduated sector and upon reaching the end returns instantaneously to the first indication. Used to describe a pointer hand on a watch dial (often a subdial), which returns to zero at the end of a prescribed period. For example a watch may have retrograde date - in this case the hand moves up a scale a day at a time, pointing to the current date - when it reaches 31 it will spring back to 1.
Rotating Bezel - A bezel (the ring surrounding the watch dial) that can be turned. Different types of rotating bezels perform different timekeeping and mathematical functions.
Rotor - The part of an automatic (or self-winding) mechanical watch that winds the movement's mainspring. It is a flat piece of metal, usually shaped like a semicircle, which swivels on a pivot with the motion of the wearer's arm.
Second Time Zone Indicator - An additional dial that can be set to the time in another time zone. It lets the wearer keep track of local time and the time in another country simultaneously.
Skeleton: This case design displays the watch movement with an open dial or with a clear crystal placed on the case back.
Small Seconds - A second hand that is not, as is normal in modern watches, fixed at the center of the watch together with the minute and hour hands, but has a smaller dial of its own elsewhere on the dial. This kind of seconds-display demands a completely different movement construction than a normal watch.
Strap - A watchband made of cloth, rubber, leather or other non-metal material.
Subdial: A small window or register with its own hands that is placed on the main dial. Chronograph watches have three or four subdials to display multiple functions.
Sweep Hand: The marker that denotes the seconds as it moves around the dial of an automatic watch. Also called the sweep second hand, this marker moves in a smooth arc on the dial. The second hand of a quartz watch will click forward in second-long increments.
Tachymeter: A register set on the bezel that measures the distance covered over a specific period of time.
Tourbillon - A technically demanding device invented by Abraham Louis Breguet in 1801 to compensate for the interference of gravity on the balance of a pocket watch, thus improving its rate. In a tourbillon (from the French word for whirlwind), the entire escapement is mounted on an epicyclic train in a “cage” and rotated completely on its axis over regular periods of time, usually once a minute. This superb horological highlight, while being unnecessary for a wristwatch, is seen as a sign of technological know-how in the modern era.
Water Resistance - Usually measured in increments of one atmosphere (atm or bar, equal to 10 meters of water pressure) or meters and is often noted on the dial or case back. The record is held by The Hydromax by Bell & Ross which was developed for professional deep sea diving and is resistant to 11,100 meters! In 1960 a Rolex Deep Sea Special prototype diving watch attached to the hull of the bathyscaphe Trieste reached a record depth of 10,916 msw (35,813 ft) during a descent to the bottom of the Challenger Deep, the deepest surveyed point in the oceans. The watch survived and tested as having functioned normally during its descent and ascent. The Deep Sea Special was a technology demonstration and marketing project, and the watch never went into production.
World Time: Found in digital watches, this function features a list of the current times in major cities around the world.
