Maximum Timepiece

Watch Brands Increasing Quest to Establish Unique Identity

For generations consumers have known of the major watch brands such as Omega, IWC, TAG Hauer, and Breitling. These major brands have done their part to establish themselves as having strong reputations for quality, but these days the manufacturers are finding that this is not enough. They have begun seeking ways to further improve their edge. Omega has come associated with the Olympic Games and also with the United States space organization, NASA; TAG Hauer has become associated with high speed racing; Ulysse Nardin is known for its ties to the marine world; Breitling for its Bentley time piece. The horizon is clearly about brand association, but more recently the situation has started to grow – to borrow a classic watch term – complicated.

The new wave of watches will be playing upon their fellow industries in the hi tech world. This is expected to change the watches we wear dramatically as new features come to be included that have never before been imagined. New features, called complications, will include audio players to play MP3 music files, WiFi connectivity, Bluetooth interaction and even GPS so that consumers can use their watch to tell not only the time, but their location, as well. Some of these features tie into cars, allowing Aston Martin owners to use their Rapid Transponder watch model to locate their vehicle. Breitling offers a watch equipped with a distress signal to be used by pilots and air crew, already the device has saved twenty lives. The future looks bright indeed for watchmakers and fans alike.

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Artistic Posters from Omega Set to Commemorate Winter Olympics 2010

The connections that tie Swiss watch making company Omega together with the Olympic Games stretch as far back as 1932, to be a huge part of the company’s global identity. Since they have been given the opportunity to be the official time keeping devices at the Games, the company has managed to tie its brand very closely with the games themselves through a great many historic memories. It is these exact events tying Omega with the Olympics that have inspired the series of posters titled Great Moments in Time. The posters serve as advertisements for the watch company, and one of them will feature the Vancouver Winter Olympic Games 2010 on it. All of the photos have been described by critics as poignant, timely works of art with a bold, colorful aesthetic.

Among the events depicted in the series is the United States versus the former Soviet Union, an epic on ice battle that lead to a 4 – 3 “miracle” victory in 1980 for the US team, the perceived under dogs at the time. Another shows Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean, the legendary ice dancing team, who won with the gold with a perfect 6.0 in Sarajevo’s 1984 Winter Olympics on Valentine’s Day. The third poster will commemorate the Olympics in Vancouver, featuring a bobsled team. A special edition watch is also being produced, the Omega Seamaster Professional 300m Diver Vancouver 2010 watch. The limited run time piece will be constructed of stainless steel, utilizing a bezel of anodized red metal to signify the watch’s connection with Canada and also, the four colored intertwined rings that symbolize the Olympic Games.

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.

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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.

Tags: watch movements, watch movements guide