watch watch is a watch that is meant to be carried or used by someone. It's designed to keep working despite movement caused by the person's activity. Watches are designed to be worn around the wrist, attached by watch strap or other type of bracelet. A pocket watch is designed for someone to carry in a pocket.
Wristwatches developed in the 17th century from the spring-powered clock, which appeared at the beginning of the 14th century. For most of its history, the clock is a mechanical device, driven by working hours, backed by the main thrust spin, and keeping time with the oscillating balance wheel. In the 1960s electronic quartz clocks were invented, powered by batteries and stored time with quivering quartz crystals. In the 1980s, quartz clocks had taken over most of the market from mechanical clocks.
Today most watches are cheap and medium price, used primarily for timeliness, have quartz movement. Expensive collectibles, valued more for their elaborate skills, aesthetic appeal and glamorous design than simple timekeeping, often have traditional mechanical movements, although they are less accurate and more expensive than electronics. Additional features, called "complications", such as moon phase displays and different types of turbillon, are sometimes included. Modern watches often feature days, dates, months and years, and electronic watches may have many other functions. Time-related features such as timers, chronographs and alarm functions are common. Some modern designs incorporate a calculator, GPS, and Bluetooth technology or have a heart rate monitoring capability. Some watches use clock radio technology to regularly improve the time.
Developments in 2010 include smartwatches, which describe electronic devices such as computers designed to be worn on the wrist. They generally incorporate timing functions, but this is only a small part of the smartwatch facility.
The study of timeliness is known as horology.
Video Watch
Histori
Watches evolved from a portable spring clock, which first appeared in 15th century Europe. Watches were not widely used in the pockets until the 17th century. One account says that the word "clock" comes from the Old English word
The big leap forward in accuracy occurred in 1657 with the addition of a spring balance to the balance wheel, a discovery that was disputed both at the time and since between Robert Hooke and Christiaan Huygens. This innovation increases the accuracy of the watches is very large, reducing errors from maybe a few hours per day to maybe 10 minutes per day, resulting in the addition of minute to face needle from about 1680 in England and 1700 in France.
The increased accuracy of the balance wheel focuses on the mistakes caused by other parts of the movement, triggering a wave of two-century clockmaking innovations. The first thing to fix is ​​the escape. The breakout threshold was replaced in quality watches by cylinder escapement, invented by Thomas Tompion in 1695 and further developed by George Graham in the 1720s. Improvements in manufacturing such as the gear machine designed by Robert Hooke enabled an increase in the volume of watch production, although finishing and assembling were still done by hand till the 19th century.
The main cause of errors in the wheel balance timepieces, caused by changes in the elasticity of the spring balance of temperature changes, is solved by the bimetallic temperature wheel created in 1765 by Pierre Le Roy and enhanced by Thomas Earnshaw. The sacrifice of the lever is the most important technological breakthrough, and was invented by Thomas Mudge in 1759 and repaired by Josiah Emery in 1785, though it only gradually began to be used from about 1800 onwards, especially in England.
Britain has been dominating in watchmaking for much of the 17th and 18th centuries, but maintaining a production system directed to high-quality products for the elite. Despite attempts to modernize the clock-making with mass production techniques and the application of duplicate tools and machinery by the British Watch Company in 1843, it was in the United States that the system was taking off. Aaron Lufkin Dennison started a factory in 1851 in Massachusetts that used interchangeable parts, and in 1861 he ran a successful company incorporated as Waltham Watch Company.
Watch
The concept of watches returned to the earliest production of watches in the 16th century. Elizabeth I of England received a watch from Robert Dudley in 1571, described as an armed watch. The oldest surviving watch (later described as a bracelet watch) is a clock made in 1806 and given to JosÃÆ'Â © phine de Beauharnais. From the start, watches were almost exclusively worn by women, while men used pocket watches until the early 20th century.
Wristwatches were first worn by military men towards the end of the 19th century, when the importance of synchronizing maneuvers during the war, without the potential to reveal plans to enemies through signals, was increasingly recognized. The Garstin Company of London patented the "Watch Wristlet" design in 1893, but they probably produced similar designs from the 1880s. Officers in the British Army began using watches during colonial military campaigns in the 1880s, such as during the Anglo-Burmese War of 1885. During the First Boer War, the importance of coordinating troop movements and synchronizing attacks on Boer's highly mobile guerrillas became extremely important. , and the use of watches then became widespread among officer classes. Mappin & amp; Webb started their successful campaign "campaign watchdog" for soldiers during a campaign in Sudan in 1898 and accelerated production for the Second Boer War a few years later. On the European continent Girard-Perregaux and other Swiss watchmakers began supplying German naval officers with watches around 1880.
The initial model was basically a standard pocket watch fit for leather straps, but in the early 20th century, manufacturers started to produce artificial watches. Company Swiss Dimier FrÃÆ'¨res & amp; Cie patented the watch design with the now standard wire lugs in 1903. Hans Wilsdorf moved to London in 1905 and set up his own business, Wilsdorf & Davis, with his brother-in-law Alfred Davis, provides quality watches at affordable prices; the company then becomes Rolex. Wilsdorf was the first to switch to watches, and contracted the Swiss Aegler firm to produce a watch line.
The impact of the First World War dramatically changed the public perception of the courtesy of men's watches and opened up mass markets in the postwar era. The artillery tactics of the creeping attack, developed during the war, require an appropriate synchronization between the artillery shooters and the infantry who advanced behind the barrage of attacks. The service watches produced during the War are specifically designed for the hardness of the trench warfare, with luminous dial and unbreakable glass. The British War Department began issuing watches for combatants from 1917. At the end of the war, almost all enlisted men wore watches, and after they were demobilized, the fashion was soon caught: the British Horror Journal wrote in 1917 that "watches bracelets are used a bit by tight sex before the war, but are now seen on the wrists of almost every man in uniform and many men in civilian clothes. " In 1930, the wrist to pocket watch ratio was 50 to 1. The first successful self-winding system was invented by John Harwood in 1923.
The introduction of quartz clocks is a revolutionary increase in watch technology. In place of a balance wheel that oscillates at maybe 5 or 6 beats per second, it uses a quartz crystal resonator that vibrates at 8.192 Hz, driven by a battery-powered oscillator circuit. Since the 1980s, more quartz watches than mechanical ones have been marketed.
Maps Watch
Movement
The watch movement is a mechanism that measures the passage of time and displays the current time (and possibly other information including date, month and day). Movements can be completely mechanical, fully electronic (potentially without moving parts), or both may be a combination of both. Most of the clocks aimed primarily for the timeliness of today have an electronic movement, with mechanical hands on the clock display that shows the time.
Mechanical
Compared to electronic movements, mechanical watches are less accurate, often with a few seconds per day, and they are sensitive to position, temperature and magnetism. They are also expensive to produce, require regular maintenance and adjustment, and are more prone to failure. Nevertheless, mechanical watches still attract the interest of some people who watch-buy, especially among hour-watchers. Skeleton watches are designed to leave a visible mechanism for aesthetic purposes.
A mechanical movement uses a breakout mechanism to control and limit the bonding and winding parts, changing what should be a simple release into a controlled and periodic release of energy. The mechanical movement also uses the balance wheel along with the balance spring (also known as hairspring) to control the movement of the clock gear system in a way analogous to the pendulum pendulum pendulum. The tourbillon, an optional part for mechanical movement, is a rotating frame for breakout, which is used to cancel or reduce the effects of gravity bias to timeliness. Due to the complexity of designing turbillon, they are very expensive, and are only found in prestigious watches.
The pin-lever delay (called Roskopf movement after its discoverer, Georges Frederic Roskopf), which is a cheaper version of a fully uplifted movement, is produced in large quantities by many Swiss manufacturers and by Timex, until it is replaced by quartz movement.
The tuning watches use a kind of electromechanical movement. Introduced by Bulova in 1960, they used a tuning fork with the right frequency (most often 360 hertz) to drive a mechanical clock. The task of turning the vibration of an electronic fork into a spinning motion is done through two small gem fingers, called pawls. The tuning watches are obsolete when electronic quartz watches are developed. Quartz watches are cheaper to produce than more accurate.
Traditional mechanical watch movements use spiral springs called the main thrusts as sources of electricity. In manual watches the spring must be played back periodically by the user by turning the crown of the watch. The antique pocket watch is wrapped around by inserting a separate key into the hole on the back of the watch and rotating it. Most modern watches are designed to run 40 hours on the winding and thus have to be hurt every day, but some run for several days and some have 192-hour main push and weekly wounds.
Automatic watch
self-winding or automatic clock is one that replays the main thrust of mechanical movement with the natural movement of the wearer's body. The first self-winding mechanism was invented for the 1770 pocket watch by Abraham-Louis Perrelet, but the first "self-winding" or "automatic" watch was the invention of a British watchwoman John Harwood in 1923. This type watches the wind itself without require special action by the wearer. It uses an eccentric weight, called a winding rotor, which rotates with the wrist movement of the wearer. The back and forth movement of the rotor pairs meanders into the ratchet to drive the primary drive automatically. Tortuous watches can also also be manually injured to keep running when not in use or if the wearer's wrist movement is inadequate to keep the wounded.
In April 2014, Swatch Group launched the system 51 watch. It has a pure mechanical movement consisting of only 51 parts, including a new self-winding mechanism with a heavily oscillating transparent. So far, this is the only mechanical movement that is fully manufactured on a fully automated assembly line. The low number of parts and the automatic assembly makes it a cheap mechanical Swiss watch, which can be considered a replacement for the Roskopf motion , although the quality is higher.
Electronics
Electronic movement, also known as quartz movement, has some or no moving parts, except quartz crystals that are made to vibrate by a piezoelectric effect. Variable electric voltage is applied to the crystal, which responds by changing its shape so that, combined with some electronic components, serves as an oscillator. It resonates at a certain very stable frequency, which is used to accurately accelerate the timing mechanism. Most quartz movements are mainly electronics but are geared to move the mechanical hand in the face of the watch to provide a traditional analogue look at that time, a feature most preferred by consumers.
In 1959, Seiko placed an order with Epson (Seiko's daughter company and 'brains' behind the quartz revolution) to begin developing quartz watches. The project is codenamed 59A. At the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Seiko had a working prototype of a portable quartz clock used as a measurement of time during the event.
The first prototype of an electronic quartz watch (not just a portable quartz watch as a Seiko timepiece at the Tokyo Olympics in 1964) was made by the CEH research lab in NeuchÃÆ'Â ¢ tel, Switzerland. From 1965 to 1967 pioneering development work was carried out on miniature quartz oscillators 8192 Hz, thermo-compensated modules, and integrated home-made circuits, unlike the hybrid circuits used in Seiko Astron's watches later. As a result, the BETA 1 prototype establishes a new record-time performance record at the International Chronicle Competition held at the NeuchÃÆ'Â ¢ tel Observatory in 1967. In 1970, 18 manufacturers exhibited a production version of 21 beta watches, including Omega Electroquartz and Patek Philippe, Rolex Oysterquartz , and Piaget.
The first quartz watch to enter production was Seiko 35 SQ Astron, which hit the shelves on December 25, 1969, quickly followed by Swiss Beta 21, and then a year later the prototype of one of the most accurate watches in the world to date: Omega Marine Chronometer. Because the technology has been developed by contributions from Japan, America and Switzerland, no one can patent the entire movement of quartz watches, thus enabling other manufacturers to participate in the rapid growth and development of the quartz watch market. It ended - in less than a decade - almost 100 years of dominance by the legacy of mechanical watches. Modern quartz movement is produced in very large quantities, and even the cheapest watches usually have quartz movement. While mechanical movement can usually be turned off by a few seconds a day, inexpensive quartz movements in a child's watch may still be accurate in half a second per day - ten times more accurate than mechanical motion.
After consolidating the mechanical clock industry in Switzerland during the 1970s, mass production of quartz watches took off under the leadership of the Swatch Group of companies, Swiss conglomerates with vertical control of the production of Swiss watches and related products. For quartz watches, a subsidiary of Swatch produces watch batteries (Renata), oscillators (Oscilloquartz, now Micro Crystal AG) and integrated circuits (Ebauches Electronic SA, renamed EM Microelectronic-Marin). The launch of the new SWATCH brand in 1983 was marked by bold new styles, designs and marketing. Today, Swatch Group maintains its position as the largest watch company in the world.
Seiko's efforts to combine quartz and mechanical movements came to fruition after 20 years of research, leading to the introduction of Seiko Spring Drive, first in the production of a domestic market limited in 1999 and into the world in September 2005. Spring Drive made the time in standard quartz without using batteries , using a traditional mechanical gear backed by a spring, without the need for a good balance wheel.
In 2010, Miyota (Citizen Watch) of Japan introduced a newly developed movement that uses 3-pronged quartz crystals exclusively manufactured for Bulova for use in the Precisionist or Accutron II line, a new type of ultra-high frequency quartz clock (262,144 kHz ) which is claimed to be accurate up to/- 10 seconds per year and has a second, smoother sweep than a jump every second.
Radio time signal watches are a kind of electronic quartz clock that synchronizes (time transfer) timed with external time sources such as in atomic clocks, time signals from GPS navigation satellites, German DCF77 signals in Europe, WWVB in the US, and others. This type of movement can - inter alia - synchronize the time of day and date, leap year status and daylight saving state (live or dead). However, in addition to radio receivers, these watches are normal quartz watches in all other aspects.
Electronic watches require electricity as a power source, and some mechanical movements and mechanical movements of hybrid electronics also require electricity. Typically, electricity is provided by a replaceable battery. The first use of electric power in watches is in lieu of a major push, to eliminate the need for winding. The first electric-powered watch, Hamilton Electric 500, was released in 1957 by Hamilton Watch Company of Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
Watch batteries (tight-spoken cells, as batteries composed of multiple cells) are designed specifically for their purpose. They are very small and provide small amounts of continuous power for a very long time (several years or more). In many cases, replacing a battery requires a trip to a clock repair shop or a watch dealer; this is especially true for watertight watches, because special tools and procedures are required to keep watches waterproof after battery replacement. Silver-oxide and lithium batteries are popular today; mercury batteries, previously quite common, no longer used, for environmental reasons. Inexpensive batteries may be alkaline, with the same size as silver-oxide cells but provide shorter life. Rechargeable batteries are used in some solar powered watches.
Some electronic watches are supported by the movement of the wearer. For example, Seiko's quartz-powered quartz wristwatch uses the wearer's arm movement: rotating the rotating weight that causes a small generator to supply power to charge a rechargeable battery that runs the watch. This concept is similar to the movement of a self-winding spring, except that the electric power generated is not a mechanical spring tension.
The solar powered watch is powered by light. The photovoltaic cells on the face (dial) of the watch turn the light into electricity, which is used to charge the battery or a rechargeable capacitor. The watch movement draws its power from a rechargeable battery or capacitor. As long as the watch is regularly exposed to strong enough light (such as sunlight), never requires a replacement battery. Some models require only a few minutes of sunlight to provide weeks of energy (as in Citizen Eco-Drive). Some early solar hours of the 1970s have an innovative and unique design to accommodate the various solar cells needed to drive them (Synchronar, Nepro, Sicura and some models by Cristalonic, Alba, Seiko, and Citizen). As the decade progresses and the efficiency of solar cells increases while the power needs of movement and display decreases, the solar watches begin to be designed to look like other conventional watches.
The rarely used power source is the temperature difference between the wearer's arm and the surrounding environment (as applied in Citizen Eco-Drive Thermo).
Views
Analog
Traditionally, watches have displayed time in analog form, with dial numbers installed at least one hour spinning and longer, rotating the minute hand. Many watches also incorporate a third hand that shows the current seconds at this time. Quartz-powered watches usually have a second hand locked every second to the next marker. Watches powered by mechanical movement seem to have a second hand that is gliding, though not actually sliding; the hand moves only in smaller steps, usually 1/5 of a second, according to the tap (half-period) of the balance wheel. In some escapes (eg a run of duplex ), the hand advances every two taps (full period) of the balance wheel, usually 1/2 second in the watch, or even every four taps (two periods, 1 sec ), in double duplex folding . The second gliding hand is achieved with a tri-synchro regulator from Spring Drive. All hands are usually mechanical, physically rotating on the dial, although several hours have been produced with "hands" simulated by a liquid crystal display.
The analogue display of time is almost universal in watches that are sold as jewelry or collectibles, and in these watches, different styles of hand, figures, and other aspects of analog dial are so widespread. In watches that are sold for timekeeping, analog displays are still very popular, as many people find it easier to read than digital displays; but in timeliness, the emphasis is on accurate clarity and timing readings in all conditions (clearly marked digits, visible hands, large watches, etc.). They are specifically designed for the left wrist with a bar (the button used to change the time) on the right side of the watch; this makes it easy to change the time without removing the clock from the wrist. This is the case if one of the right hand and watch is worn on the left wrist (as is done traditionally). If one is left-handed and wears a clock on his right wrist, one has to take off the wristwatch to rearrange the time or to rotate the clock.
Analog watches, as well as clocks, are often marketed showing display times around 1:50 or 10:10. This creates a pleasant smile-like visual appearance at the top of the watch, in addition to attaching the manufacturer's name. Digital displays often show a time of 12: 8, where an increase in the number of active segments or pixels gives a positive feeling.
Tactile
Tissot, the Swiss luxury watchmaker, makes Silen-T watches with a touch-sensitive, vibrating face to help the user tell the time without the eyes. The watch panel displays a bulge on every hour mark; After briefly touching the face of the watch, the wearer holds a finger around the bezel clockwise. When the fingers reach a bulge that shows the clock, the watch is vibrating continuously, and when the finger reaches the bulge indicating the minute, the watch vibrates intermittently.
Eone Timepieces, a company based in Washington D.C., launched its first touch analog watch, "Bradley", on July 11, 2013 on the Kickstarter website. This device is primarily designed for users with visual impairments, which can use two hour ball bearings to determine the time, but is also suitable for general use. This watch features an elevated mark on every hour and two magnetically mounted ball bearings. One ball bearing, at the edge of the clock, shows the clock, while the other, in the face, shows minutes.
Digital
The digital display shows the time as a number, for example , 12: 8 instead of the abbreviation pointing to the number 12 and the 8/60 hand length from the road around the call. Digits are usually displayed as seven segment views.
The digital clock mechanic first appeared in the late 19th century. In the 1920s, the first digital mechanical watches appeared.
The first digital electronic clock, the Pulsar LED prototype in 1970, was developed jointly by Hamilton Watch Company and Electro-Data, founded by George H. Thiess. John Bergey, head of Hamilton's Pulsar division, said he was inspired to create a digital watch by the futuristic digital clock created by Hamilton himself for the 1968 science fiction film 2001: A Space Odyssey. On April 4, 1972, Pulsar was finally ready, made in 18 carat gold and sold for $ 2,100. It has a red light emitting diode (LED) display.
Digital LED watches were very expensive and unaffordable to the general consumer until 1975, when Texas Instruments began mass-producing LED watches in plastic boxes. This watch, which first sold for $ 20, was reduced to $ 10 in 1976, saw Pulsar lose $ 6 million and the Pulsar brand was sold to Seiko.
A somewhat problematic early LED clock was The Black Watch manufactured and sold by the British company Sinclair Radionics in 1975. It was only sold for several years, as production problems and returned products (wrong) forced the company to stop production.
Most watches with LED displays require the user to press a button to see the time displayed for a few seconds, because the LEDs use so much power that they can not continue to operate continuously. Normally, the color of the LED display will be red. Watches with LED displays are very popular for several years, but soon the LED display is replaced by a liquid crystal display (LCD), which uses less battery power and is much more comfortable to use, with an invisible look and no need to push buttons before viewing the time. Just in the dark, you have to press the button to turn on the screen with a small light bulb, then illuminate the LED.
The first six-digit LCD clock was the 1973 Seiko 06LC, although various forms of early-screen LCD watches with four-digit screens were marketed in early 1972 including the 1972 Gruen Tele LCD Watches, and Cox Electronic Systems Quarza. In Switzerland, Ebauches Electronic SA presents an eight-digit prototype LCD watch that shows the time and date at MUBA Fair, Basle, in March 1973, using Twisted Nematic LCD made by Brown, Boveri & amp; Cie, Switzerland, who became the LCD supplier for Casio to watch CASIOTRON in 1974.
The problem with Liquid Crystal Displays is that they use polarized light. If, for example, a user is wearing polarized glasses, the watch may be hard to read as the field of screen polarization is approximately perpendicular to the glasses. If the light shining on the screen is polarized, for example if it comes from a blue sky, the display may be difficult or impossible to read.
From 1980 onwards, digital clock technology greatly improved. In 1982 Seiko produced Seiko TV Watch which has a built-in television screen, and Casio produces digital clocks with thermometers as well as others that can translate 1,500 Japanese words into English. In 1985, Casio produced the CFX-400 scientific calculator clock. In 1987 Casio produced a clock that could dial your phone number and Citizen revealed one that would react to your voice. In 1995, Timex released watches that allowed users to download and store data from computer to wrist. Some watches, such as Timex Datalink USB, display dot matrix displays. Since their peak in the late 1980s through the mid-1990s, high-tech trends, digital clocks have become much simpler, cheaper time cuts with little variation between models.
Illuminated
Many watches have illuminated screens, so they can be used in the dark. Various methods have been used to achieve this.
Mechanical watches often have luminous paint on their hands and clock marks. In the mid-20th century, radioactive material was often inserted into the paint, so it would continue to shine without exposure to light. Radium is often used but produces a small amount of radiation outside the clock that may be dangerous. Tritium is used as a substitute, because the radiation it produces has very low energy so it can not penetrate the watch glass. However, the tritium is expensive - it must be made in a nuclear reactor - and it has a half-life of only about 12 years so the paint remains glowing for only a few years. Currently, tritium is used in special watches, for example, for military purposes (See Tritium lighting). For other purposes, luminous paint is sometimes used in analogue displays, but no radioactive material is contained therein. This means that the screen will light up as soon as it is exposed to light and quickly fades away.
Watches that combine batteries often have electric light from their screens. However, the light consumes much more power than the movement of an electronic watch. To save battery, the light is only activated when the user presses the button. Typically, the light stays on for a few seconds after the button is released, allowing the user to move the hand out of the way.
In the early digital hours, LED displays are used, which can be read easily in the dark like during the day. The user has to press the button to turn on the LED, which means that the watch can not be read without a key pressed, even in full daylight.
In some types of watches, a small incandescent or LED illuminates the screen, which does not glow intrinsically. This tends to produce a very uniform illumination. Incandescent lamps are very wasteful of electricity.
Other watches use electroluminescent material to produce uniform illumination from the screen background, where hands or digits can be seen.
Synthesis speech
A talking watch is available for blind or blind people. They say the time loudly by pressing the button. It has the disadvantage of disturbing others nearby or at least warning people who are not deaf that the wearer is checking the time. Tactile watches are preferred to avoid this awkwardness, but watches are preferred for those who are not confident in their ability to read reliable watches.
Handedness
Watches with analog displays generally have small buttons, called crowns, which can be used to adjust time and, in mechanical watches, spring breezes. Almost always, the crown is on the right side of the watch so that it can be worn on the left wrist for the right-handed individual. This makes it uncomfortable to use if the watch is worn on the right wrist. Some manufacturers offer "left-hand drive" alias "destro", arranging watches that move the crown to the left side make watches easier to use by left-handed people.
A more rare configuration is the target watch. Bullhead watches are generally, but not exclusively, chronographs. The configuration moves the crown crown and chronograph to the top of the watch. Bullhead is usually a watch chronograph that is intended to be used as a stopwatch of the wrist. Examples are Citizen Bullhead Change Timer and Omega Bullhead Seamaster.
Digital watches generally have push-buttons that can be used to make adjustments. It's usually just as easy to use on both wrists.
Function
All watches provide time, give at least hours and minutes, and usually the latter. Most also provide the current date, and often the day of the week. However, many watches also provide a lot of information beyond the basic time and date. Several hours including alarm. More complicated and more expensive watches, both pocket and wrist models, also incorporate striking mechanisms or repeater functions, allowing the user to learn the time with sound coming from a watch. This striking announcement or feature is an important characteristic of the actual clock and distinguishes the watch from a regular watch. This feature is available in most digital clocks.
The complex clock has one or more functions outside the basic function displaying the time and date; such a function is called a complication. Two popular complications are the chronograph complication, which is the ability of the clock movement to function as a stopwatch, and the complication of moonphase , which is the lunar phase display. Other more expensive complications include Tourbillon, Eternal Calendar, Minute Repeater, and Equation time. Really complicated watches have many complications at once (see Caliber 89 from Patek Philippe for example). A few hours can show the direction of Mecca and have an adjustable alarm for all daily prayer needs. Among clock fans, elaborate watches are very easy to charge. Several hours include a 12 hour or 24 hour second display for UTC or GMT.
Similar-sounding terms chronograph and chronometer are often confusing, although they are completely different. Chronographs are clocks with an additional timer, often a stopwatch complication (as described above), while the clock chronometer is a timepiece that has met the industry standard test for performance under predetermined conditions: a chronometer is a high-quality mechanical or thermo-compensated motion which has been tested and certified to operate within certain precision standards by the COSC (ContrÃÆ'Â'le Officiel Suisse des ChronomÃÆ'¨tres). The concept is different but not mutually exclusive; so the clock can be a chronograph, chronometer, both, or not.
Many computerized watches have been developed, but no long-term sales success, because they have a strange user interface because of the small screen and buttons, and short battery life. Because electronic miniatures are becoming cheaper, watches have been developed that contain calculators, tonometers, barometers, altimeters, compasses that use both hands to show N/S directions, video games, digital cameras, keydrives, GPS receivers and cell phones. Some astronomical watches show the phases of the Moon and other sky phenomena. In the early 1980s, Seiko marketed a watch with television in it. Such watches also have a reputation as an unsightly toy and therefore most are geek toys. However, some companies try to develop computers contained in watches (see also wearable computers).
Electronic sports watches, combining timeliness with GPS and/or activity tracking, addressing general fitness markets and having the potential for commercial success (pioneers of Garmin, Garmin Vivofit, Epson, announced Swatch Touch series models).
Braille watches have an analogue look with protuberances around the face to allow blind users to tell the time. Their digital equations use synthesized speech to talk time on command.
Mode
Antique watches and watches are often valued as jewelry or as collectible artwork rather than just watches. This has created several different markets for watches, ranging from very cheap but accurate watches (meant for no other purpose than telling the right time) for very expensive watches that primarily serve as personal jewelry or as an example of high achievement in miniaturization and precision machining techniques.
Traditionally, the men's watches that are appropriate for informal (semi-formal, formal, and formal) clothing are golden, thin, simple, and plain, but more rugged, elaborate, or sports watches are considered by some to be acceptable for clothing such as that. Some watches have cabochon in the crown and many women watches have faceted gemstones, bezels, or bracelets. Some are made entirely in terms of sapphire (corundum).
Many fashion and department stores offer cheaper, trendy, and "ordinary" costume watches (usually for women), many of which are of the same quality as standard quartz watches but feature bolder designs. In the 1980s, Swiss Swatch company hired graphic designers to redesign a new annual collection of irreparable watches.
The trade of counterfeit watches, which mimics expensive branded watches, is an estimated market of US $ 1 billion per year.
Space
Environment without gravity and other extreme conditions faced by astronauts in space require the use of specially tested watches.
The first watch sent into space is a Russian "Pobeda" watch from the Petrodvorets Watch Factory. It was sent on a single orbital flight on the Korabl-Sputnik 4 spacecraft on March 9, 1961. The watch was attached unlicensed to Chernuchka's wrist, a dog who managed to travel exactly like Yuri Gagarin, with exactly the same rocket and equipment, only a month before the Gagarin flight.
On April 12, 1961, Yuri Gagarin wore Shturmanskie (transliteration of ???????????????) which actually meant a "navigator" watch) during his first historical flight going to space. Shturmanskie was produced at the First Moscow Plant. Since 1964, the watches of the First Moscow Factory have been marked with the trademark "?????", transliterated as "POLJOT", which means "flight" in Russian and is a tribute to many of the space trips his watch has achieved.. In the late 1970s, Poljot launched a new chrono movement, 3133. With 23 movements of gems and manual rolls (43 hours), it was a modified Russian version of the Swiss Valjoux 7734 in the early 1970s. Poljot 3133 was taken into space by astronauts from Russia, France, Germany and Ukraine. At the arm of Valeriy Polyakov, the Poljot 3133-based watch wristwatch recorded space for the longest space flight in history.
Throughout the 1960s, a large number of watches were tested for durability and precision under extreme temperature and vibration changes. Omega Speedmaster Professional was selected by NASA, the US space agency. Heuer became the first Swiss watch in space thanks to Heuer Stopwatch, worn by John Glenn in 1962 when he piloted Friendship 7 on the first US manned orbital mission. Breitling Navitimer Cosmonaute is designed with a 24-hour analog dial to avoid confusion between AM and PM, which does not mean in outer space. It was first used in space by US astronaut Scott Carpenter on May 24, 1962 in the Aurora 7 mercury capsule.
Since 1994 Fortis is the exclusive supplier of a manned space mission authorized by the Russian Federal Space Agency. China National Space Shuttle Astronaut (CNSA) uses Fiyta spacewatches. At BaselWorld, 2008, Seiko announced the creation of a first-hand watch specifically designed to run in space, Spring Drive Spacewalk. Timex Datalink is a flight certified by NASA for space missions and is one of NASA's qualified watches for space travel. Casio G-Shock DW-5600C and 5600E, DW 6900, and DW 5900 are Qualified Flight for NASA space travel.
Various models of Timex Datalink are used by both cosmonauts and astronauts.
Scuba diving
Watches can be made to be waterproof. These watches are sometimes called diving hours when they are suitable for scuba diving or saturation diving. The International Organization for Standardization issued a standard for waterproof watches that also prohibited the term "waterproof" for use with watches, which have been adopted by many countries.
Water resistance is achieved by gaskets that form a watertight seal, used in conjunction with the sealant applied to the casing to help prevent water from coming out. The case material should also be tested to pass as waterproof.
None of the tests specified by ISO 2281 for Water Resistant markers are suitable to qualify the hours for scuba diving. Such watches are designed for everyday life and must be waterproof during exercise such as swimming. They can be used in different temperature and pressure conditions but not in circumstances designed for scuba diving.
The standard for dive watches is governed by the ISO 6425 international standard. Watches are tested in static water or stationary under 125% of rated pressure (water), so a clock with a rating of 200 meters will be waterproof if it is stationary and below 250 meters of static water. Water resistance testing is fundamentally different from non-diving watches, as every hour must be fully tested. In addition to water resistance standards up to a minimum depth of 100 meters, ISO 6425 also provides eight minimum requirements for mechanical dive watches for scuba diving (quartz watches and digital clocks have slightly different reading requirements). For diver watches for mixed gas saturation dives, two additional requirements must be met.
Watches are classified by their water resistance level, which roughly translates into the following (1 meter = 3,281 feet):
Some watches use bars instead of meters, which can then be multiplied by 10, and then subtract 10 for roughly the same as the rating by meter. Therefore, a 5-bar watch is equivalent to a 40-meter watch. A few hours are rated in the atmosphere (atm), which is roughly equivalent to a bar.
There is a traditional method in which analog clocks can be used to search north and south. The sun appears to move in the sky for 24 hours, while the 12 hour clock has twelve hours to complete one round. In the northern hemisphere, if the watch is rotated so that the clock is pointing toward the Sun, the midpoint between the watch and the clock 12 indicates south. For this method to work in the southern hemisphere, 12 points toward the Sun and the midpoint between the watch and 12 hours will indicate north. During summer time, the same method can be used using clock 1 instead of 12. This method is accurate enough to be used only at fairly high latitudes.
See also
- American Watchmakers-Clockmakers Institute
- Coin watch
- Smartwatch
- List of watch manufacturers
- Marine Chronometer
- National Hours Watch and Clock Association
- Tachymeter (watch)
References
Further reading
- Beckett, Edmund, Rudimentary Treatise on Hours, Watches, and Bells , 1903, from Project Gutenberg
- Berner, G.A., Illustrated Professional Horror Dictionary , Switzerland Watch Industry Federation FH 1961-2012
- Daniels, George, Watchmaking , London: Philip Wilson Publishers, 1981 (reprinted June 15, 2011)
- De Carle, Donald, (Illustrations by EA Ayres), Practical Clock Repair , 3rd ed., New York: Skyhorse Pub., 2008. ISBNÃ, 978-1-60239-357- 8. Important information about their watches, history, and workings.
- Denn, Mark, "Tourbillon and How It Works", IEEE Control Systems Magazine , June 2010, IEEE Control Systems Society, DOI 10.1109/MCS.2010.936291.
- Grafton, Edward, Horology, popular clock sketches and watchmaking, , London: Aylett and Jones, 1849
External links
- American and Swiss Watchmaking in 1876 by Jacques David
- The Watch Factories of America Past and Present by Henry G. Abbott (1888)
- Swiss Watch Watch Federation FH
- UK patent GB218487, Improvements related to watches, patents 1923 resulting from John Harwood's invention of practical self-winding lock mechanisms.
Source of the article : Wikipedia