Maximum Timepiece

Why Use Tungsten?

Tungsten is fast becoming one the most popular materials when it comes to deciding which element to have your jewelery made out of. What is causing this high demand for it, however, and why is it becoming so popular?

In days gone by the most popular material would easily have been gold with some opting for silver or titanium if they wanted to appear a bit different. However, the number of people now using tungsten is rising and we have to decide why this actually is. For a start the material is extremely strong; whereas both gold and silver are undoubtedly robust materials that can withstand a bit of damage; tungsten is stronger than all of these materials and it would take a monumental effect to destroy a tungsten based piece of jewelery.

In addition to this, they are scratch resistant. If you are using a tungsten ring or a watch then there there is little chance that you will do any cosmetic damage to the object as various tests have concluded that there are very few materials that can actually do damage to tungsten (diamonds being one of them). Another reason why so many people are turning to the element as opposed to gold or silver is that it has a long life in terms of its natural shine and beauty. Other materials tend to fade and dim overtime and require regular and consistent maintenance to ensure that they keep up their gleam; tungsten will keep shining for a long time and its maintenance is low meaning that it is the perfect material to use to wedding rings and bands. Lastly, it benefits from being very affordable and when you think about all the benefits you get with a tungsten jewelery then it should be your first choice of material.

Why Silver jewellery Is The Best Buy

The price of gold has been steadily increasing, however, sterling silver is still very affordable. You can purchase dozens of pieces of sterling silver jewellery for the same price that you would pay for a single piece of gold or platinum jewellery. While it may not be your aim to purchase a large amount of sterling jewellery, you should consider the fact that it is more adventitious to own several key pieces rather than just one staple. In other words, having the ability to purchase more jewellery for less money will help you to get a better value out of your clothes.

Lots of consumers love to purchase jewellery when it is exclusive and hard to find. For this reason sterling silver jewellery is valuable because quality pieces are not always readily available in department stores. If you are able to locate a great pair of sterling silver earrings that are truly unique you will not likely see anyone else wearing them. High polished sterling silver is hard to distinguish from white gold, so few people will ever be able to guess how much you paid for your jewellery.

If you are interested in purchasing more jewellery but you are not in a position to spend a lot of money then sterling silver is your best option. All precious metals appreciate in value over time, so the purchases that you make today will only be worth more in the future. Once you begin to see just how varied sterling silver designs are you will begin to appreciate its beauty even more. Since sterling silver gives you more purchasing power you can feel free to browse jewellery stores that sell this precious metal without stopping to look at the price tag. Give silver jewellery a try and you will look back.

Watch History

One of the most significant intellectual and technological advances in the history of mankind has been the conceptualization of time and the invention of the sundial, the first device used to mark the passage of time as we know it today. It would be a very long time from that first tool to measure passing hours until the 16th Century when the first spring driven clocks were created on the continent of Europe by a German man known as Peter Henlein. Some historians, however, believe this could be inaccurate by a full hundred years due to two remaining examples of such clocks in the 1400’s.

It would not be much longer until the first watch sized clocks were created in a style that could be worn. These were large and clumsy, shaped like a cylinder and designed to hang about the neck from a chain. They did not read minutes, possessing only an hour hand. The shape eventually evolved into an egg like construct and would go on to feature primitive alarms. Eventually, the shapes became more complex as the tooling grew more focused, providing watch customers with such unusual shapes as fruits, stars, crosses, animals, skulls and even insects. Charles the II of England would be the first to own what we now know as a pocket watch in 1675, popularizing them along with waistcoats. These first pocket watches featured glass covers to protect the dial and were significantly more intricate than their early ancestors.

The balance spring would prove to be an important development in watch making, creating a more harmonious function within the watch itself and generating a time recording effect that was less disturbed by everyday movements that previously knocked a pocket watch out of sync. During the Enlightment Period of the late 1700’s, watches came to be seen as genuine instruments of science, a well respected academic study by that time. Compensation for temperature came to be taken into account and watches began being used in marine expeditions to keep track of longitude through certain complications built into them. Many watches featuring highly complex astronomical complications were introduced during these years.

Soon, jewel bearings were introduced to help create a more durable and accurate form of time keeping and it would not be long before time pieces would be able to be manufactured in volume. Mass production began in 1830 as the process proved itself highly efficient for creating the parts used within watches. These interchangeable parts were key to the development of the railroads which needed time pieces that kept absolutely accurate time so that they could safely conduct trains from one destination to the next. Railroad chronometers were of the highest quality and revolutionary for their time due to this dependence on reliability and accuracy. By 1876 a man by the name of Roskopf would bring cheaply produced watches to the market that were so affordable the average worker could own his very own to help him tell time for his work schedule. Shortly before the 1900’s, the United States took the vast majority of the market share for low to medium grade watches from the then dominant Switzerland companies and so those Swiss companies made the decision to focus their efforts on luxury watches.

This would change the world of watches forever and between 1911 and 1950, the wrist watch rose to prominence. Since that time, watches have improved in design, technological proficiency and quality at a rapid pace.

Watch Displays

As one of the most important devices invented by humanity, the watch is a crucial part of a person’s identity in many cases. All watches have a display which is used to show the wearer what time it is, but they do come in a huge range of varieties and styles. No matter what sort of look a person is seeking there is likely a watch that can cater to their taste. From glow in the dark watch styles like Indiglo that uses electricity to glow or other variations of this style that utilize phosphorescent paint, to highly styled and artistic displays, there is a display that can suit the needs of nearly any watch fan. However, there are two major types of watch displays that need to be covered because they are the ones that are most prevalent today as the primary types available.

The traditional style of watch display is, of course, the analog display. This is the type seen on old fashioned clocks where one or two hands rotate about a numbered circle that is used to mark both the hours and minutes, sometimes even as detailed as including seconds. The analog style generally includes two hands, one for the hour and one for the minutes, but there are also those models that have a third hand used for ticking off the seconds. Sometimes this seconds hand is referred to as a ’sweep second hand’ because rather than moving at a tick per second, it moves at a rate of 1/5th second, thus making it appear to be in constant motion rather than making short leaps as the typical hands do. Usually, in a watch of the analog variety, the watch itself has a mechanical movement, but there are also analog watches that are run through a battery the way a digital watch would be run. 

Nearly all watches sold for higher end purposes, such as for jewelry or collector’s items, are analog display. They are favored because they can be much more unique in appearance than the average digital watch in their number markings, the styles of their hands and so forth. Most people feel that the analog display is the easier to read of the two, as well.

Digital display watches are a more recent innovation and generally are associated with a quartz movement. This means that they have far more accuracy than is possible with a mechanical movement. The first of these watches was brought to the market in 1970 and their popularity has only increased since then. The first of these digital displays utilized an LED (Light Emitting Diode) to show the time in numerical format similar to the digital display clocks that preceded them. Since the LED type display uses a large amount of battery, the user had to press down a button in order to see the display light up. Because this was an extremely inefficient use of battery power, the LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) was invented and it is the prevalent form of digital display used in watches made today. This style is not very common in high end watches collector’s market, but they are the mainstay style for those who want to do time keeping with precision.

Watch Types

In the world of high quality watches there are many different types, each designed for specific reasons to suit the particular needs of the wearer. It is useful to consider these types in the selection of a new watch so as to be certain that the correct type is chosen to fit well into the life style of the wearer and also to meet the expectations of the watch that one has.

Fashion watches are a type of watch that are primarily designed with their looks in mind. This does not mean that they are automatically lacking in functions (also called complications), it merely means that aesthetic appeal is their primary function beyond that of telling the time accurately. Many times, fashion watches are actually so amazing in appearance that they are closer to jewelry or even works of art than they are to a simple utilitarian watch. The more expensive the watch, the more likely it is to be a primary personal adornment and symbol of success. 

Men’s dress watches vary in their style with the recent rise of highly complex sports watches, which are both rugged and rich in a variety of complications, coming to be seen as dress watches for men due to their sheer expense. In the past, a solid gold watch with a typically thin band was considered a men’s dress watch and was generally preferable in a more plain style. Women’s dress watches, on the other hand, are often small but far more intricate in their details, containing a selection of jewelry worthy gem stones arranged in various patterns. Costume watches for women offer a cheaper alternative to the general jewelry type watch. Geek watches, while not necessarily dress watches, are considered another type of fashion watch that offers satellite navigation, anticlockwise time display and other complications suited to the geek subculture.

Space watches are sought after because of their profound complications that make them very interesting for collectors and the average watch enthusiast alike. This type of watch must undergo extensive testing as if it were actually going to be worn into the zero gravity environment of outer space, an attractive feature for many. These durable and highly precise watches have quite a fan base, many of whom favor the Omega brand since it is associated with NASA or the brands of TAG Hauer and Breitling.

Watches designed for scuba diving have a strong fan base, as well, because this type of watch has a high level of durability and is obviously resistant to water. Using gaskets to form a water tight seal with the proper sealant, they are able to resist water. Since the International Organization for Standardizations does not allow the term “water proof” to be used with watches, water resistant has become the descriptive term of choice for most manufacturers. Heavy testing in a lab setting is used to ensure that the watches live up to their claims of water resistance to make them safe and usable not only for scuba divers, but the general public. 

Clocks and Watches as Personal Fashion Statements

It is said that a person can be measured by the quality of the things that they make a choice to buy and this is certainly a piece of philosophy that is interesting to explore because it does make us wonder at the level of value we are able to express about ourselves through our choices in the material world. If one is thinking about high class watches, the British are certainly masters at creating a time piece which can really wow a whole room full of people who give it even the quickest simple glance. This says much about the people of the UK, but it also goes into the history and heritage that they share as well as the cultural values that go into the types of watch styles which they are known for creating. Since there is so much value placed on the function and form of these types of time pieces it really does say a lot about a man or woman who chooses to buy something of this quality, but it is not just the styles of a watch that are a big part of a fashion statement because fashion and style are not just about the things that we choose to wear. They are also about the things in our home.

This is why people will invest to get themselves one of the talking clocks that are growing in popularity today. These charming ways to tell time have captured the hearts and minds of many people who like to have something that is not only nice to look at and be around, but that offers an audial quality which is not found in many other items in the home other than those things which are about distributing media over the airwaves or via cables. With these clocks, a whole new atmosphere is created that is really unique.

Watch Functions

While all the different types of watches provide the function of tracking and displaying the current time, there are a variety of other functions which watches can provide. Watch functions are often referred to by collectors as ‘complications’. Depending upon the type of watch purchased, it may have one or more of the functions listed below.

Calendar – This is a calendar that gives the day and month of the year, but not usually the year itself. It is useful, but not included on all models. It, too, must be set if the watch ever has its battery changed or has stopped and needs to be rewound. The most intricate of calendars keep track of time on such a large scale that they account for changes in date due to leap years.

Time Zone Indicator – While many watches feature the time in UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) or GMT (Greenwich Mean Time), some have a way to display the current time zone. This feature is especially handy for those who travel a great deal and might otherwise be out of sync with local time.

Chronograph – A watch that is capable of measuring time in increments set by the wearer is called a chronograph. This means that the watch essentially contains a stopwatch capable of timing laps or other similar activities. Sometimes includes a fly back function, as well.

Moon Phase – Certain watches are able to display the current phase of the moon, a novelty that was very popular in the 1990’s. This is sometimes tied in with a watch’s calendar function. This particular function is believed to have revived the interest in old fashioned mechanical watches.

Altimeter – This complication is sought after by pilots. Using a barometric sensor, the watch’s altimeter is able to give a read out of the current altitude. 

Tourbillon – Since it is exceptionally difficult to create, this function which gets its name from the French word for ‘vortex’, is especially prized by watch collectors. Through a very delicate balancing of timed rotations, it negates the adverse effects of gravity. While a quartz watch is still more accurate, the intricacy of the craftsmanship required to make a tourbillon is what generates its appeal.

Water Resistance – Simply put, this means that a watch is impervious to the effects of water up to a specific depth. While most watches that are resistant up to 100 meters work well for swimmers, divers often need 200 meters of resistance. This function can be found in resistance up to 10,000 meters in extreme cases.

Minute Repeater – Also called simply ‘repeater’, this complication allows the wearer to hear the time by utilizing miniature gongs struck by tiny hammers within the watch. Similar to how a clock will chime on the hour. This function is primarily a novelty complication.

Tachymeter – This function allows the wearer to measure a length of time something takes and then, using the watch’s tachymeter, determine how many times that activity could be performed within a single hour.

Watch Movements

The watches advertised today often mention the types of ‘movement’ that they offer. This term refers to the inner workings of the watch itself, the parts that ‘move’ to create the tracking of time and also the display of that time either through analog hands that point to hours, minutes and seconds or numbers on a digital display unit. There are different types of movements, but most fall into two major categories: quartz movements and mechanical movements.

A watch featuring a quartz movement is powered by a small battery that feeds electricity to a miniscule piece of quartz that then oscillates at a rate of 32,786 times per second. A miniature electronic circuit board built into the watch divides the oscillations up into seconds and uses that information to turn the hands of the watch at the appropriate intervals of seconds, minutes and hours unless the quartz movement watch is a digital model. While most quartz watches are analog, the digital versions use an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) to show numbers on the face of the watch. There are also watches called “ana-digi” that combine both analog and digital information in the same watch to show both versions of the time. Quartz movements feature the most accurate type of time keeping, but they generally have batteries which much be changed instead of having to wind the watch by hand. These watches rarely need any form of maintenance

Watches which feature a mechanical movement were the first types of watches ever made, getting their design basics from clocks. They gain their energy through a mainspring which is a unique slowly unwinding spring that releases its energy at a constant rate to an oscillator, which is a balance wheel that oscillates 28,800 times per second. A hair spring or balance spring controls the oscillations of the balance wheel to keep the piece functional as a unit. There are two main versions of the mechanical movement, automatic and hand wound. The hand wound is simply a watch that is wound by hand, but the automatic winding watch has a rotor that is activated by the movement of the watch wearer’s body and acts to wind the spring for them. As long as an automatic winding watch is worn for around 12 hours per day it will stay wound forever, but manufacturers are now able to make certain very advanced models that can keep their watches running for up to a week even if they are not worn.

In addition to these types, some brands offer a kinetic powered watch that converts the wearer’s physical movement into electricity to run a digital or analog watch. By making use of a miniscule rotor that spins at an extremely high rate of speed, these watches generate electricity and store it inside an ESU (Electrical Storage Unit) to be released over time. Some models, mostly from Seiko, can run for up to four years without even being warn. Another unique technology is the Eco-Drive watch which utilizes not only solar power, but any light source even artificial lights indoors, to power itself.