While many people buy watches solely for their exterior, anyone with a real eye for design will know it’s what’s on the inside that counts.
Watchbazar explains ……
What is a movement? It is the engine inside the watch that drives the hands around and powers any additional complications, such as a stopwatch, date or chronograph .
Mechanical / Manual
A manual movement, frequently called a hand-wound movement, is the oldest type of watch movement made, dating back to the 16th century. It requires daily winding in order to work. Manual movements are the most traditional movements and are usually found in very conservative, expensive, and collect able watches.Daily winding is required.When winding a manual watch, it should be wound until there is a feeling of tension or tightness on the crown.The first self winding movement was invented for pocket watches in 1770 by Swiss horologist Abraham Louis Perrelet.
A simple but ingenious mechanism, this movement consists of a coiled spring that, when wound by turning the crown, stores energy that is then released in a regulated manner, through a series of gears, to keep time. Hand-wound movements, while the oldest form, are still some of the most loved due to their beauty and versatility. All of the most respected brands still produce hand-wound movements, whose decorated splendor is often displayed through a clear open case back.
Hand-wound movement
The first self winding movement was invented for pocket watches in 1770 by Swiss horologist Abraham Louis Perrelet. An automatic, or self winding, movement is a mechanical movement first marketed in the beginning decades of the 20th century. It winds itself while worn on the wrist, eliminating the need for daily hand winding. However, if not worn for some time, the watch will stop and require a manual winding. This does not include taking the watch off before bed.
Automatic
As its name suggests it winds itself automatically through the motion of your wrist. An oscillating weight the rotor in the movement is connected to a gear train that keeps the mainspring wound as long as you wear the watch regularly. Take off your watch for a couple of days, and you’ll either need to wind it up by hand to get it started or give it a few shakes.
The Front and underside view of a Appella automatic watch with a transparent case back, showing its ETA 2824-2 movement.
While the rotor typically hides half of the movement from view at any given time, it is often engraved and decorated and can be a joy to watch spin freely around on watches with a display case back. Automatics are the most common type of mechanical watch due to their set-and-forget nature.
Quartz
And lastly we have the Quartz movement which uses a battery for its power source and does not need winding like a mechanical watch. It is the most accurate type of movement currently being produced. Electricity is carried from the battery to the quartz crystal via the integrated circuit.
Quartz Movement
The electricity makes the quartz crystal vibrate at a rate of 32,768 per second.These vibrations are counted by the circuit and converted into a single pulse every second this pulse results in the consistent movement of the watch hands.Quartz watches are lower maintenance because they contain less moving parts and use a battery as their main power source.
Happy ….Tick…Tick…Tick
