Types of Watch Movements
There are a wide range of watch movements, the main one being quartz, which is powered by a battery. But there’s also mechanical and automatic movements that have springs or run from your arms' natural motion (movement). In this short blog we’re going to take a look at each movement and all you need to know.
What actually is a watch movement?
You may have heard the watches movement referred to as the caliber, this is basically the inside mechanism that powers your watch and its functions. It’s usually made up of gears, springs and other parts that connect and control your watches timing hands on the watch display (face) as discussed above the three main types are quarts, mechanical and automatic.
Manual Movements
Peter Henlein was the original founder of the manual watch movement he originated from Nuremberg Germany and was a locksmith and clock maker by trade and is thought to have invented the world's first pocket watch in 1510, many people have speculated over the years that he was already building on technology that already existed and mechanical watches were actually manufactured as early as the 14th century.
A manual watch’s system is made from springs, gears and wheels that work together to help keep track of time. The more traditional mechanical movements are powered by something we call a mainspring and is typically wound up by hand powering the balance wheel acting as an oscillator and steers how quickly the gears turn. This allows everything to run smoothly and in synchrony along with the rotation of the balance wheel.
It’s no secret that many high end brands use mechanical movements in their watches and are just as popular now as they were many years ago. Mechanical movements are popular with Rolex, Tag Heuer, Breitling and many more.
Automatic Movements
Abraham-Louis Perrelet is thought to have created the first ever self winding mechanism for a self winding pocket watch in 1770 he was a Swiss horologist. He placed an oscillating weight inside the watch which moved up and down thus making way for the automatic watch movement.
During world war 1 it was discovered through pilots and soldiers that pocket watches weren’t as useful as they would like because they had to reach into their pockets every time they needed to check the time. So along came British horologist John Harwood who developed the mechanism further and created the first ever self winding automatic wrist watch.
The mechanism is made up of something called a rotor and when the person wearing the watch moves their wrist this causes the rotor to spin this then automatically winds the mainspring inside and sends power to the mechanism. Many people like to purchase automatic movement watches for many reasons such as the way they are crafted, others just appreciate them because they are self-winding and have to rarely be wound manually.
Quartz Movement
So the quartz movement is completely different to the mechanical and automatic movements where they require hundreds and hundreds of tiny parts to work perfectly. The quarter movement simply relies on an electric current that is made and generated with a little tiny battery. Its common knowledge in the industry that before the quartz movement was invented Swiss watch makers were the most influential and dominant in the watch industry. But in the 1960s along came the Quartz Revolution or in some cases the Quartz Crisis.
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