You’d be bound to meet interesting wrist watches if you walked into the boardroom of a Fortune 500 company. Watch names like Vacheron Constanin, Frank Muller, Patek Phillipe, Jaeger-LeCoultre and the all time favorite, Rolex, wrist watches just exude an edifice of class and sophistication.

In an age when newer technologies are integrated with time-telling functions (Personal Digital Assistants, Pagers and Cellular Phones with timepiece functions), wrist watches have become more of a piece of modern culture, rather than an object of function.

But such wasn’t the case less than 100 years ago.

Wrist watches weren’t exactly called wrist watches then. They were known as Wristlets, and were considered more of a passing fad, rather than a serious timepiece. They were often reserved as a “for women” object, and were held with much disdain among men.

Watches, as they still are used for now, were primarily used to keep track of the time. Wrist watches, small as they were, weren’t exactly believed in, compared to pocket watches, which were seen to be more accurate.

The rigors of human activity didn’t also make wrist watches popular, considering that the first of these Wristlets were delicate and expensive.

In ancient times observing the sun’s position served as mankind’s way of telling the time. Subjective as this time telling method was, a device geared to tell the time in a graduated way was eventually invented; the sundial.

During the day, a vertical pole positioned in the middle of a calibrated dial served as the main time-telling method. The shadow casted on the dial provided people a fairly accurate reading of time, taking away subjective readings of time, from simply estimating time through the sun’s position.

By the fourteenth century, the invention of the mechanical clock paved the way for modern watches, as we know them to be. An intricate series of wheels, gears and levers ran the firsts of mechanical clocks. Falling weights balanced with a pendulum served as its power source.

Come the eighteenth century, small and more “sealed” clocks were made, which were far more convenient for home use. From there on, pocket watches came to be, heavily utilized in the railways. Train operators and railway workers, heavily depended on time estimates and synchronization.

The successful operation of train procedures, avoidance of train wrecks, all these depended on a carefully organized system of timings and procedures, which pocket watches, aided the responsible personnel with.

Self-winding watches are amazing. No need to replace batteries. No hassle in having to wind them. As the name says it all, self-winding watches wind themselves up. All one has to do is wear them.

The secret behind a self-winding watch’s power lies within the operation of a simple principle: wind-up watch springs.

Watch springs are commonly called a watch’s mainspring, while certain watch brands refer to them as a watch’s motor spring. Either way, their function remains the same; watch springs/mainsprings/motor springs store wound up energy important for wind up watches to successfully operate.

Watch springs are strips of hardened steel or steel alloy. They often come 0.05-.02 millimeters thick and 200-300 millimeters long. These days, watch springs are stainless and have strong elastic tolerances.

1945 saw carbon-steel alloys making up watch springs. Later followed by “newer” alloys (like iron-nickel-chrome and cobalt-molybdenum-beryllium), structurally hardened metals have become a standard for watch springs.

The metal is coiled inside a barrel-like containing unit. The “winding” is estimated to enable the watch to function for 36 to 40 hours.

There’s a power reserve that lasts for 12 to 16 hours, the normal standard for self-winding watches. Taken out of a watch’s barrel-like containing unit, watch springs come in three distinct shapes:

In the realm of watches, watch movements refer to the watch’s mechanism that measures the passing of time. It also includes, though not to all watches, other displayed information like the date, month and day, etc.Watch movements are either mechanical, electronic or a combination of both. Most of the watches in the world are electronic, with mechanical hands, as timekeeping is basically their sole purpose.

Electronic watch movements are essentially the most “modern” of watch movements. Its source for a stable time base comes in the form of a quartz crystal. Usually, a setup of this type uses what’s known as the piezoelectric effect:

The crystal is utilized in forming a quartz oscillator which resonates at a specific, stable frequency. The frequency from the resonating oscillator accurately paces a timekeeping mechanism, keeping it accurate in its purpose.

Quartz watch movements usually utilize an emitted resonant frequency of 32768 Hz. A 15 stage divide-by-two circuit converts this frequency into a 1 pulse per second signal, which it responsible for keeping the on-time.

Watches run by electronic watch movements are commonly called quartz watches, because of the quartz crystal utilized for its successful operation, and are commonly “powered” electronically, geared to drive mechanical hands.

Watch batteries don’t last forever. Watch batteries have an expected life span, as all batteries do, rechargeable or not.

To date, most watches out in the market use (or are capable of using) lithium batteries. Alkaline watch batteries can be found in the market, but these battery types don’t actually perform as well as lithium watch batteries do.

Lithium watch batteries last considerably longer, and function their best in cold weather. There is actually no reliable rechargeable watch battery option when one talks about watch batteries.

When it comes to installing a new battery (when the old one runs out), one has two options: either to bring the watch to a shop (and have the battery installed by qualified personnel), or to use the “hands on” approach to it.  Naturally, the first option stands to hold more practical sense.

As professional watch repair men know their trade, one wouldn’t have to go through the potential hassle of learning the basics of opening a watch, acquiring tools to facilitate the opening and learning the dynamics on which the watch operates (which gears to avoid, which areas to touch, etc).

In the world of watches, a lot of factors are considered in the process of deeming the “superstar” watch. Watch brand, watch design, watch function/functions, and watch durability are among the basic things most people consider.

A watch’s power source is another.

There are various watch power source options available. Spring watches, self-winding watches, battery powered watches and light/solar powered watches fill in the list. Within this roster of available watch power sources, thermal power watches are the most seldom found.

Thermal power watches aren’t the most common of watch types. In the varied array of power sources for watches, thermal power watches take its power source from the temperature difference between its immediate surrounding environment and the wearer’s arm.

Electric current is generated by thermal power watches through semiconductors contained within the watch. When the watch’s back touches the user’s body, the device’s system detects this, and converts it to energy, powering the watch.

It’s been noted that a temperature difference within a junction of two different metals (or different semiconductors) creates voltage. This is called a Seebeck effect (which had been discovered about 150 years ago).

Most of us love wearing watches not only because they are necessary but also because they are good accents to our everyday get-ups. That is why; there are different styles of watches made available to cater to people’s personal preferences and style.

Though most wristwatches come in practically every imaginable shapes, sizes, materials and colors, there are still some styles of watches that forms some basis of practically most designs.

The styles of watches most common today are the categorized according to its use. There are dress watches, designer watches, jewelry watches and sports watches. Sports watches include the dive watches and the pilot watches.

The most known styles of watches are the dress watches. These are those watches that are safe to be used on a daily basis. Dress watches are mostly gold and sometimes made with other precious metals.

They do not have any markings and they have dials and hands that look simple. Likewise, their straps are thin with subtle stitching.  Dress watches goes well with any daily get up, be it on office or schools.

The second styles of watches are the jewelry watches. Most of these watches are worn by the elites mostly on special affairs and the likes. Jewelry watches are remarkably heavily jeweled.

In 1987, a couple from Copenhagen, Denmark named Henrik and Charlotte Jorst came to the US. They came to the US to establish their own business.

The couple’s business idea centered on the theme and atmosphere of a small but beautiful fishing place called Skagen. Skagen is located at the northernmost part of a Danish peninsula.

This fishing village is known for its unique natural charm. Here, the natural scene is so compellingly beautiful that artists visit this place just to capture the scene to their canvasses.

Mr. and Mrs. Jolt wanted to capture the essence of the beauty of Skagen in their products. They named their company Skagen Designs, in honor of the fishing village. All of Skagen Designs products are elegant and of high.

Skagen Design products include sunglasses, clocks and pens. The company also designs beautiful watches.

Skagen watches are uniquely Danish in design. Sleek and contemporary, Skagen watches have their quartz movements encased in solid stainless steel or solid titanium cases. Many of the watches have backs that can screw on.

Several models of Skagen watches also feature luminous hands, date windows, accurate chronograph and multifunction dials.

There was a time when people would witness the birth of a new technology, and deem it as the marker that would be the end-all of all technological advances before it.Perceptions couldn’t have been more wrong.

When video tapes came out, theaters were said to die. When laser printers came out, word was; the need for dot matrix printers would be phased out. When newer, more advanced wrist watches came out, self-winding watches would be a thing of the past.

Perceptions couldn’t have been more wrong.

Movie theaters are still up and about, Dot Matrix printers are still in the market, costing even more than newer, faster printers and Self-winding watches are still preferred over other watch types.

Self-winding watches are works of art. But this “superstar status” isn’t the enduring quality that makes it what it is. The basic principle behind its power is.

An oscillating weight, positioned within the watch, stands as its “primary” source of power. As one moves about, one’s arms swing to and fro.

As the laws of gravity would have it, the oscillating weight would turn about, swinging back and forth as well. The weight is connected to a gear train, which is connected to the watch’s spring (or winder).

“Rolex”, the trademark name that Hans Wilsdorf created in 1908. Three years back ,the original name of the company founded by Hans Wilsdorf was “Wilsdorf & Davis”.

There isn’t really much certainty how Rolex watches got the name it has now, but one story talks about how the word meant “to indicate movement” in English. Another talks about how the French phrase horlogerie exquise (which translates to exquisite watch industry) inspired the etymology of Rolex as a brand name.

Regardless of what the past behind the inception of its name was, by 1915 the name had officially been recognized, and Rolex watches were known to be Rolex watches by heart. The “name change” act is believed to be a campaign to popularize wristwatches.

During those times, pocket watches were popular, and it is believed that Wilsdorf opted for the name change to promote Rolex watches, giving the brand an edge (memory retention). The name was easy to pronounce, and the act proved to be quite effective.

By 1919, the original name of the company name was changed officially to the Rolex Watch Company. Later, it was replaced with the name Montres Rolex, SA and then finally to Rolex, SA.