The Variety of Watch Movements

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.

The Seiko 35 SQ Astron revolutionized electronic quartz watch movements when it went into production in 1969.

Though prototypes of electronic quartz came out as early as 1963 (the CEH research laboratory in Switzerland had come up with the first of prototypes), Seiko’s first quartz watch have somewhat become congruent when talking about the brand.

Compared with other types of watch movements, the best breed of quartz watch movements are accurate to the dot.

Mechanical watch movements can be commonly found running the watch-works of established brands like Rolex, Tag Heuer, Omega, and Fortis. They still are very popular, as they are included in most finely crafted items in the world.

Put side by side with electronic watch movements, mechanical watch movements do not produce proper time every time. Frequent errors from wrong seconds contribute to this “poor time” status.

They require more “attention”, that being; mechanical watch movements need regular adjustments and maintenance, lack of which, often leads to performance failure.

They are also quite costly to produce, and are also sensitive to temperature and/or position conditions.

Basically, mechanical watch movements work with a series of gears and pendulums, systematically setup to “tell the time.” A wind-up system, utilizing an intricate spring system serves as the power source for these watches.

A good example of a combination between electronic and mechanical watch movements would be Tuning-fork watch movements. Max Hetzel (who worked with Bulova Watch Company) used a 360 hertz in driving a mechanical watch.

A conversion from an electronically pulsed fork vibration into rotary movement happens with tuning-fork movements. Two jeweled fingers (known as pawls) are used in the conversion process.

One of the tuning fork’s ends is connected to one of these jewels. As the fork is vibrating, the pawls ratchet an index wheel, which has over 300 spins and teeth (barely visible, at that). The rotary motion is converted to “tell the time.” This was prototyped by 1950.

Through the years, with technology’s development, the world of watches has seen the best from relative views. The classic mechanical watch is still held with high regard, while electronic watches are known for their timekeeping.

It all boils down to what wearers need in a watch, and just what they mean to them.