How did you say that again?
Have you ever walked into a watch retailer, wanting to ask for your favorite brand of watch, but unsure of how to even pronounce it properly? Fret not, here is guide on how to pronounce all those nettlesome watch brand names. We hope the following brand list, with phonetic spellings on the right, is able to help tongue-twisted watch fans everywhere.
Mechanical Watch 101
What is a Mechanical Watch?
What seemingly a simple answer to a silly question turned out to be a a question harder than you think it is. A mechanical watch is a device for keeping time, which uses the energy from a wound spring, and keeps time through the highly regulated release of that energy through a set of gears (the wheel train) and anescapement. It differs from the typical quartz watch in that it uses purely mechanical components to keep time. Mechanical watches typically can run for about 40 hours on one full winding of the mainspring, with a few designs available with up to 8 days, or even 10 days, of power reserve.
The basic design of mechanical watches has not changed very much in the past fifty years. What has changed is the use of high technology and modern materials in the design and manufacture of watches. Even with the fusion of CAD/CAM, electrospark erosion in the manufacturing, and titanium nitride cases; the pinnacle of watchmaking is still an expression of elegance of design, attention-to-detail in finishing and assembly, and the art of hand-tweaking movements for optimum performance.
Call it "old fashioned" or "low technology", in my opinion, mechanical watches has survived through the digital age. And it has emerged stronger, surpassing the digital age even with it ''old fashioned'' technology. Stay tuned and you will know what I mean.
The basic design of mechanical watches has not changed very much in the past fifty years. What has changed is the use of high technology and modern materials in the design and manufacture of watches. Even with the fusion of CAD/CAM, electrospark erosion in the manufacturing, and titanium nitride cases; the pinnacle of watchmaking is still an expression of elegance of design, attention-to-detail in finishing and assembly, and the art of hand-tweaking movements for optimum performance.
Call it "old fashioned" or "low technology", in my opinion, mechanical watches has survived through the digital age. And it has emerged stronger, surpassing the digital age even with it ''old fashioned'' technology. Stay tuned and you will know what I mean.
Is it really jewel? What does the 'Jewel' in the watch mean?
Does more 'Jewel' necessarily mean better... and more expensive? Higher grade watches have traditionally used a jeweled movements, which means that jewels (originally natural ruby, now synthetic ruby) were actually used in the movement. These jewels are functional, they are used as the bearings for the wheel trains and in high wear parts such as the escape lever and impulse jewel. A lower-end movement from before 1970 would typically use 5 or 7 jewels; this end of the market has pretty much been taken over by quartz. Nowadays, most manual wind watches will have a standard complement of 17 jewels, which are:
So back to my question earlier, does more 'Jewel' necessarily mean better... and more expensive? It does not increase accuracy, since the only wheels which have an effect on the balance wheel, those in the going train, are already jeweled. Nor does jewelling additional wheel bearings increase the useful life of the movement, as mentioned above most of the other wheels do not get enough wear to need them.
Why so many jewels then? By the early 20th century watch movements had been standardized to the point that there was little difference between their mechanisms, besides quality of workmanship. So watch manufacturers made the number of jewels, one of the few metrics differentiating quality watches, a major advertising point, listing it prominently on the watch's face. Consumers, with little else to go on, learned to equate more jewels with more quality in a watch. Although initially this was a good measure of quality, it gave manufacturers an incentive to increase the jewel count.
So will you pay the premium for more number of jewels now? By the way, Marine Chronometers, the most accurate portable timepieces, often have only 7 jewels.
- 1: Impulse jewel (the part of the balance wheel assembly which receives a kick from the escape lever)
- 2-5: Balance staff pivot bearings (two pairs - in combinations of one pivot jewel (i.e. jewel with a hole to receive the axle (pivot) of the wheel) and one cap jewel (i.e. jewel without a hole outboard of the pivot jewel, to prevent excessive movement of the balance staff), usually shock protected)
- 6-7: Escape lever pallets (one pair)
- 8-9: Escape lever pivot bearings (one pair)
- 10-11: Escape wheel pivot bearings (one pair)
- 12-13: Fourth wheel pivot bearings (one pair)
- 14-15: Third wheel pivot bearings (one pair)
- 16-17: Center wheel pivot bearings (one pair)
So back to my question earlier, does more 'Jewel' necessarily mean better... and more expensive? It does not increase accuracy, since the only wheels which have an effect on the balance wheel, those in the going train, are already jeweled. Nor does jewelling additional wheel bearings increase the useful life of the movement, as mentioned above most of the other wheels do not get enough wear to need them.
Why so many jewels then? By the early 20th century watch movements had been standardized to the point that there was little difference between their mechanisms, besides quality of workmanship. So watch manufacturers made the number of jewels, one of the few metrics differentiating quality watches, a major advertising point, listing it prominently on the watch's face. Consumers, with little else to go on, learned to equate more jewels with more quality in a watch. Although initially this was a good measure of quality, it gave manufacturers an incentive to increase the jewel count.
So will you pay the premium for more number of jewels now? By the way, Marine Chronometers, the most accurate portable timepieces, often have only 7 jewels.