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HOW DOES A MECHANICAL WATCH WORK?

Many of us became far more curious about the world of horology after discovering mechanical watches. The idea that pieces of metal aligned together can tick away perfectly to tell you the time. Some, show you the date, month, year, position of the moon and even a leap year! Looking into the back of the watch display case back (if it has one) can truly be mesmerising and for the haute-horology pieces it is simply a display of portable art work. However, very few of us actually understand the basics of how a mechanical watch works, what the key parts are and how it all comes together. So, today we are going to have a look at how a mechanical watch works

Abraham-Louis Perrelet, the creator of the contemporary Perrelet watch brand, is credited with creating the first effective automatic winding method in 1777. Soon after, a French inventor by the name of Hubert Harton enhanced Perrelet's invention. Abraham-Louis Breguet then improved his version, creating the first self-winding watches that were offered for sale to the general public in 1780. However, because of their erratic dependability, these Breguet "Perpetuelle" pocket watches (see below) lost popularity around 1800. Keep in mind that pocket watches weren't worn on the wrist, so they couldn't benefit from a steady stream of dynamic wrist motions to wind the rotor. When wristwatches started to replace pocket watches around the time of World War I, automatic movements experienced a resurgence: British watchmaker John Harwood submitted the initial patent for a self-winding wristwatch in 1923, and this design has remained popular ever since.

Getting down into the nitty gritty part of things, the movement inside (also called the calibre) is what ticks away at the centre of every automatic. This is what gives the watch the power or energy to move the hands, change the date, day, month and moonphase. The movement itself is made up of a series of perfectly placed springs and gears that turn energy into precisely regulated movements. This allows the watch to run with exceptional efficiency, and display the time as accurately as possible. Once you have wound the crown up for the first time, so long as you keep wearing the watch the watch will continue to tick away and work. This is because it has a rotor which is free to spin round either uni or bi-directionally as you wear and move around with the watch on your wrist. The rotor is what allows the watch to convert kinetic energy into the spring which will then slowly unwind itself, giving power to the calibre. Because of the addition of a rotor, automatic watches tend to therefore be thicker than a manual wind movement.

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Very similar to an automatic watch, a manual wind watch requires the owner to wind the crown, which winds the spring in the calibre, every day or so in order for it to work. This movement is the oldest and most classic form of movement there is and typically also has the most decorated movements. These watches will more often than not have a transparent case back so you can see and appreciate the movement itself and see all the gears turning. The lack of presence of a rotor means there are fewer parts in the calibre which allows the calibre to be thinner and lighter. In rare cases, it also allows the watch to work in zero gravity conditions as a rotor will not rotate but a manual wind calibre’s spring will continue to unwind itself. Hence, this movement is used for watches, like the Omega Moonwatch, that go into space.

Once the spring inside the movement is wound up, as it unwinds itself it turns a series of intricately connected gears to move all the hands on the watch. Using larger or smaller gears determines how fast a full rotation takes. The gear that turns the second’s hand is very small allowing it to rotate once per minute. Comparatively, the Hour hand will use a larger gear making the hand rotate once every 12 hours. Looking through the display case back on a watch you will see either red or purple jewels. These are at the centre of all moving gears because jewels are much more durable as they have a far smaller point of contact than any metal. This means there is minimal friction requiring less energy. Or, for the same amount of energy, a movement with jewels will have a far greater power reserve than one that does not. Under each jewel there is the smallest drop of lubricant to help further reduce friction, however this lubricant over many years eventually dries up which is why any calibre will need a service once every 5 to 10 years depending on the calibre.

Brands like Omega and Rolex have spent millions of dollars in developing different systems to convert the energy from the mainspring into powering the gears. Each brand does things slightly differently and gives them different levels of certifications when it comes to accuracy. Regardless of what calibre you have in your watch, it takes many hours to carefully assemble a watch’s movement for it to work perfectly. Thankfully, due to the cost in servicing a watch’s calibre, Omega and Rolex have now developed lubricants and movement that can run for 10 years before requiring a service. Even if your watch is still telling the time perfectly at the 10-year mark, you should definitely service it as the lubricants inside will have dried up and will need replacing.

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And there you have it, a quick look at how a manual and automatic watch works. It still remains an impressive feat of engineering for metal pieces all aligned together to perfectly tell the time. There are many different variations of manual and automatic movements but this is a comprehensive high-level overview of how they work. ZEALANDE has spent years dedicated to perfectly engineering the perfect luxury rubber watch strap which, like a watch movement, is designed to function perfectly for many years. If you are in the market to add a pop of colour to your watch then ZEALANDE has the solution for you.

James Talbot