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.
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