Over the years, watches have come in all forms and sizes.

From the Victorian pocket watch, to Casio’s calculator/wrist watch, the face of a timepiece has progressed, congruent with the signs of the times.

These days, the availability and preferred type of watch types rely on what “runs behind the clockwork”, and not just simply with what a particular watch can do.

There are watches run by batteries. There are also watches which are self winding. There are some that are run by solar power. And there are some run by springs (winding).

Let’s take a look at just what commonly powers a watch these days.

Self-winding Watches

Among the many watch power sources known, self-winding watches have been around for a long time. Invented by Abraham-Louis Breguet in 1770, the start of variations of watch power sources came to be, in the form of the “self-winding” watch.

Self-winding watches basically work on a “rewind” principle. A mainspring (also called the power spring) is the power source of a winding watch’s mechanical movement.

The mainspring is “re-wound”, as to keep the watch accurate and on time. Watch Power Sources of this type are seen as classics, in the realm of watches.

Few watch companies are recognized for having bought something new and innovative in the watch manufacturing industry.

This may be in the form of a new technology or a new design. Tissot, which was founded in Switzerland in 1853, is one of these companies.

The company was founded by Charles Felicien Tissot and Charles Emile Tissot in Le Locle Switzerland. Le Locle has been regarded as the cradle of the Swiss watch making industry.

Tissot has over 150 years of experience in watch manufacturing, making the company totally credible and dependable when it comes to its watches. The company is known for its unusual innovations.

Specifically it is recognized for the development of the first watch made out of plastic. It was also the first to manufacture an anti-magnetic watch. Tissot even made watches out of mother of pearl, wood and stone!

Tissot watches are known for their tactile touch technology or “T-Touch.” This means that Tissot watches have touch sensitive sapphire faces.

Tissot watches also incorporate other unique features in their watches, such as compasses, barometers, altimeters and thermometers, all sharing the T-Touch technology.

Many fine watches come from Switzerland, such as Rolex. But Swiss watches are not limited to those in line with luxury.

There are companies that make also make affordable yet beautiful watches.

One of these companies is Swatch. The company was introduced in 1983.

Swatch was intended to take back the market share that Swiss manufacturers lost against the aggressive Japanese companies.

To counter the Japanese threat, Swatch redesigned their quartz watches to be more efficient with less number of parts.

The manufacturer also embarked on an aggressive marketing campaign. Due to these two factors, Switzerland became leaders in the world wristwatch market again.

Introduction of Swatch watches

In March 1883, the company introduced its first 12 Swatch watches. With a superb marketing campaign and a very affordable price for a Swiss made watch, the Swatch watches became very popular almost immediately.

Swatch watches were 80% cheaper to produce than standard watches because of automation in assembly. The automation also reduced the number of parts from the usual 91 to 31 components.

In the United States, Swatch watches became popular during the mid-80s. Swatch stores sprouted in big malls, such as The Galleria and other uptown places.

Due to the long standing convention of Swiss watchmakers to label their watches significantly –without fail, and due to the long standing excellence found on these Swiss watches, the tag Swiss Made had become but an undying representation of the Swiss brilliance in timepiece manufacturing.

All thanks to Swiss watchmakers like Tissot.

Tissot wrist watches

For over 150 years, Tissot leads the Swiss watch making industry in innovation and workmanship, building up the daunting confidence in Swiss watches that’s so established today.

The Tissot wrist watches uses only the best clockwork movements available in the ETA SA Horlogère Suisse Manufacture; only the premier quality resources like the 316L for steel, 18K for gold, titanium, and scratchproof highly durable sapphire crystal glasses, which is at least 2200 in Vickers scale.

The Tissot wrist watches are extremely water proof at least 30m and on some dedicated Tissot wrist watches, up to 300m.

And because of the Tissot wrist watches’ longevity, customer service like spare parts, and repair service are offered for 10 years span, practically forever on your ownership of the Tissot. That is their excellence guarantee.

Watches effectively tell the exact time of the day.

For them to properly function, watch operation must rely on the proper functioning of three of its components.

These components include an energy source, such as a battery or a wound spring.

The second essential component is the device that regulates the time. This is also known as a watch movement. The last component, a display, is where a person can see the time.

Good watch operation depends mostly on these components, and gives more emphasis to movements.

Mechanical movements

Mechanical watches have mechanical movements. The design of mechanical watches has changed very little. Watch operation of mechanical movements usually involve using the energy of a wound spring.

It keeps a constant pace of time by regulating the output of that energy, which is done by the steady performance of a set of gears.

To renew the energy, the spring must be wound routinely. Normally, mechanical watches can run about 40 hours for one full winding. Some newer ones can even be wound once every 8 to 10 days.

In the past, watches were used purposely as time pieces. Today, they are more like fashion accessories aside and status symbols from being important time pieces.

Just like any fashion item, many people buy branded watches. People wearing a famous brand of watch, especially if that watch brand is known to be expensive, are generally thought of as belonging to the upper class of society.

Rolex – one of the famous watch brands:

If luxury watches is the issue, then undoubtedly, the most famous watch brand of this kind is Rolex. This watch brand is a privately owned Swiss company that manufactures wristwatches and accessories. This watch brand is known for the quality and prestige of their watches. Needless to say, their watches cost a fortune and their watches have become status symbols of the wealthy and powerful.

This watch brand also prides itself for being the first company to produce a watch case that is waterproof, a wristwatch with a date on its dial and one that indicates two time zones at the same time. They also managed to be the watchmakers, first to earn a chronometer certificate.

With two big name watches from two big named watch manufacturers vying larger pieces of the pie (or slices from two different pies), its no wonder that people are miscued about space watches –against the regular, heavy duty, durable, and long lasting timepieces. But frankly, there are no differences between both types.

The term was born out of NASA’s folly during the procedures of Project Gemini. With the project coming to realization, it was only when NASA found out that they had not considered a wristwatch suitable to travel in space.

Normal procedures for soliciting space equipment would consume too much time: the bidding for design, the bidding for the manufacturer, the tests. NASA instead opted to scour the existing market for the most reliable wristwatch, of course without the awareness of the general public or to these manufacturers.

Following are the watches to use in the space:

Chosen were 5 brands of wristwatches, all chronographs as the feature to measure time lapses efficiently is important to scientific study, and all manual wound as it was still unspecified if the absence of gravity can render ineffective the self-winding mechanism of automatic watches.

Due to undeniable workmanship in the part of the Swiss watch makers, the time tradition of knowing (or realizing) that the watches made by Swiss makers is always top class, the resulting conceits that accompany every Swiss timepiece is just as understandable.

Trendy watches seem to grow out of the Swiss soil –and no one can say differently, since among the best and most coveted brand names of luxury and trendy watches, including (but not limited to) Rolex, Tissot, Omega, and Blancpain, carry the convention label “Swiss Made”.

Rolex Daytona – one of the trendy watches:

It seems that trendy watches you have got if it carry the “Swiss Made” label, though for some the degree of vanity might not be enough. That is because, there are some, like those serious enthusiasts, can tell the direct value of an item. So is class, a Rolex or a Blancpain? It depends entirely, but the process of acquiring a Rolex makes it the more “luxury” item.

The underlying schema of acquiring a Rolex is really one of the most wicked you see, maybe that’s why Rolex still tops the food chain as far as trendy watches go. For example, to get a stainless steel Rolex Daytona, buyers have wait for years to get their model, a waiting list that is maintained by Rolex themselves.

The Japanese are known for the excellent quality of their products. The same is true for their watches.

One of the premier Japanese watchmakers is Seiko Corporation. Seiko had its beginnings in 1881 after a Japanese businessman named Kintaro Hattori decided to open a watch and jewelry shop in Tokyo.

He began producing clocks after 11 years in business. He named the clocks Seikosha, thus the name Seiko. In 1924, the company released their first Seiko watches to the public.

Seiko have a lot of accomplishments under its name. In 1969, the company produced the Seiko Astron, the first quartz watch.

This Seiko watch had an opening price equivalent to that of a medium sized car. Seiko watch also had the distinction of being the company to produce the first quartz chronograph.

Seiko watches are known best for its quality and its advanced technology. Unlike other watchmakers where their watches’ parts are manufactured by different companies, all Seiko watches are produced in-house. That means the oils; luminous compounds and dials are made by Seiko itself.

Watches used to be mechanical in nature. There are tiny gears, springs and levers inside watches that make their hands move. Unfortunately, a hard impact would dislodge or loosen the gears, rendering the watch inoperative.

All of these changed with the advent of electric quartz watches. The moving parts in these quartz watches are few or non existent at all. This makes the quartz watches easier to manufacture at a much more productive rate. Also, the electric movements’ lack of moving parts makes the quartz watches sturdy, making them capable of resisting hard impacts.

The first electric quartz watch was made in Switzerland in 1962 by the CEH Laboratory. Then 1969 saw the first electric quartz watch that entered production. This quartz watch was the Seiko 35 SQ Astron. After the introduction of the Seiko Astron, modern improvements of electronic movements in quartz watches were manufactured in huge numbers. So much so that even the cheapest wristwatch has quartz watch movements.

Electric watches work in the following way:

Electric quartz watches use a piezoelectric effect in a small quartz crystal for its operation. That is why electric watches are often labeled as quartz watches. Piezoelectric effect is the production of electricity in the quart crystal that is subjected to mechanical stress. Specifically, this effect provides the quartz watch a constant time base for a mostly electronic movement.