How Do Watches Work?
From LoveToKnow Watches
So how do watches work, anyway? We use them everyday to accessorize outfits, to make a statement, to express our personalities, declare our love for Mickey Mouse and of course, to tell time. It can become such a habit to slip on a watch while dressing in the morning that we can take it for granted. But every so often someone might stop and wonder just for a moment - how exactly does this thing function?
How Do Watches Work? - Basic Watch Operation
There are three basic elements in a watch - the power source, the movement and the display.
Power Source
The power source is what allows the watch to operate, whether the watch is powered by light, a battery or by the watch owner winding a knob sticking out of the side. If the power source is not functioning, if the battery is dead perhaps, or the watch hasn't been wound, then the watch cannot work.
Light powered watches have a receptor located just beneath the dial. The receptor absorbs light streaming in and converts it to energy to operate the watch. The energy is stored in a permanent battery to ensure that the watch works at night and in dark places.
Movement
The movement is the name for the inner workings of the watch, the part that actually keeps time. Movements generally fall into two categories: mechanical and quartz.
Mechanical Watches
In aiming to understand how do watches work, we'll need to look at mechanical watches. These watches contain mechanical movements, which have been around for centuries in clocks before they were adapted to watches. When the watch is wound, it winds up a spring, which provides the energy needed to operate the inner workings that keep time. An escapement keeps the time, while the gears connect the escapement to the hands of the watch in the display.
There are also automatic, or self-winding, watches on the market which will work without a battery and without being wound by hand. Self-winding watches are designed to wind the spring from the natural movement of your wrist. While the watch is being worn it continues to wind, and when it is removed it has enough energy stored to work for a while, sometimes for a few days, sometimes even months, depending on the watch. This type of watch works best when it is worn every day, otherwise it will stop and need to be reset.
Quartz Watches
Quartz watches first arrived on the scene in the seventies and quickly became popular. Quartz watches do not need to be wound because they receive their power from batteries or sometimes from light. They use tiny quartz crystals to keep time. The battery inside the watch causes the quartz to begin vibrating. This is converted into digital pulses that operate the circuitry in the watch.
Atomic Watches
A relatively new development is the atomic watch, which uses radio signals to synchronize the watch with an atomic clock kept elsewhere to ensure accuracy. These watches typically use quartz movements.
How Do Watches Work? - Display
The display is the part we look at to see what time it is, the date, and any other information that particular watch provides. The display is typically the traditional analog display typical of a mechanical movement, with the hour hand, minute hand and sometimes a second hand, or a digital display. Watches with additional options will also include that information in the display, in the form of chronographs, for example, or a date window.
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