History, Watch Movements, and manufactures Trivia
I will exertion to recapitulate some knowledge about wristwatches to those who may not know anything about them. I am a hobbyist in this area, and while I do not plan on writing a scholarly treatise on the subject, I wish to pass facts on the branch to those who may know nothing about it. This does not mention all so any well educated watch enthusiasts who read it will have to keep that in mind. Basically, the briefest history that I can give is as follows. Watches started out as mechanical clock devices filled with gears and springs. The internal exciting parts that power the clock or watch is called the movement. Clocks are large, and eventually they were reduced in size to the pocket watch size. Population used pocket watches for a few hundred years. They started as jewelry items for kings and the rich, but eventually pocket watches filtered down to the everyman. The first wristwatches were ladies items. Men in the late 1800's and early 20th century wouldn't be caught dead wearing a wristwatch because it was seen as a feminine item. Ironically, it was World War One which ushered in the era of mens wristwatches. The wristwatch was contract and could go practically anywhere, and soldiers needed to know the time for timing all sorts of missions and wartime things. eventually watertight wristwatches were made for navy missions and the dive watch was born. They were also prominent to forces aviators.
Today, most watches are water defiant to varying degrees, from those that are safe when you wash your hands to those that can go deeper than any human can venture outside of a protective submersible. Watches were traditionally mechanical, consisting of a puny motor inside that consisted of gears and springs which run from power stored in the mainspring from winding the watch. Our grandparents and some of our parents can remember these as the only watches in existence at one time. A incompatibility on the mechanical watch is the self-acting winding watch, which has the same type of movement but with the increasing of a rotating weight on the rear of the movement which rotates with the movement of the wearer's wrist, thus always keeping the watch wound as long as it is worn. There is a mechanism that prevents over winding. Some self-acting watches can be wound via the crown, just like the older non self-acting types, and these have the same mechanism built in where you cannot over wind them even from the crown. Older non self-acting mechanicals which want hand winding have no such safety highlight and if you force it to wind after you encounter resistance, you effectively break the watch and it must be repaired. The hand-operated wind mechanical watches only should be wound once a day at the same time every day to ensure no over winding occurs. These type of watches were oftentimes broken when in the hands of children, who tend to want to keep them fully wound because they do not fully understand that it only needs one daily winding. There are some types of hand-operated wind mechanical watches that only need one full wind every 8 days, but these are rare.
There was a brief period of battery powered galvanic watches of a non quartz type were in vogue. These were powered by a battery like modern quartz watches, but they did not rely on the oscillating quartz crystal, but by other means which are outside of the scope of this article. These watches were on the market from the late 1950's until the 1970's, being marketed alongside primary mechanical hand-operated wind and self-acting wind watches. The quartz watch was invented in Switzerland in 1962, but the Japanese marketed one first in 1969. This marked a urgency in the Swiss dominated watch industry, and sounded the death knell for many Swiss and American mechanical watch firms. The Swiss followed with their own quartz models, but the Japanese giants Seiko, Citizen, and others were to dominate the comprehensive watch market through cheap and even throwaway battery powered quartz watches. A few stalwarts continued to make mechanical watches for wealthy connoisseurs, and firms like Rolex and Iwc, among some others, never gave up on mechanical watches, although at times they did yield their own quartz models. You see, when electronic and quartz watches were first available, they were representative of new technology and they were favorite for that reason. Some advertisements bragged that the battery powered watch could run on it's own power, not the wearer's. They are also much more definite than any mechanical movement can ever hope to be. It is a running joke, and sometimes an inconvenient truth, that the average very cheap quartz watch keeps great time than a very costly Swiss mechanical timepiece. Those of us who are practical may not understand why person would pay thousands for a less definite watch, but at this level there are many other factors that go into the observation of which watch one desires to wear.
Mechanical wristwatches underwent a sort of renaissance beginning in the 1990's, which continues to this day. While cheap quartz watches still outsell luxury and other mechanical watches by an order of magnitude, the mechanical watch sector is doing well. Most European watch clubs are absolutely owned by larger conglomerates that have portfolios of any watch brands under their umbrella. The largest one is Swatch. Swatch owns many brands including Swatch, Omega, the old American brand Hamilton, and many others. Swatch also owns the Eta enterprise which makes most of the Swiss watch movements that power not only Swatch brand watches but also many other independent brands. There are some other smaller clubs that have started development Swiss movements for sale to other companies, but Eta is the big boy and Swatch is very powerful due to that fact. Mechanical watches are made for all market segments. The Chinese have pretty much cornered the market for the economy mechanical watches. The Chinese have been cloning favorite Swiss movements (the puny mechanical motors that make a mechanical watch run) as well as development their own. They can yield them very cheaply as compared to the Europeans or even the Japanese. China plays both sides of the industry. China is a place where many legitimate watch clubs go to outsource for cheap labor and enterprise operating expenses. This is a double edged sword since the Chinese have learned a lot from doing their outsourcing work, learning what it is to build and operate an Iso certified facility, etc. This is not just with watches, but all that is outsourced to Chinese factories. To their credit, the Chinese are very smart and very shrewd. Unfortunately, many unscrupulous businessmen and officials have turned this knowledge to the task of development counterfeit items. Not only does China yield many very hard to distinguish from the real thing counterfeit watches, but they even have counterfeited the mechanics inside which run the watches. There are differences, and the counterfeits are Not as good as the real thing, but to look at some of them you practically can't believe how much they look and feel like the real thing. It is also believed that many high end Swiss watch manufacturers have used the lax Swiss Made regulations to outsource as much of the parts organize as they can to the Chinese, then then doing a obvious legal amount of assembly in Switzerland in order to use the Swiss Made label. This is not the case with every brand or every Swiss watch, but many Population out there wearing Swiss Made watches would be surprised how much of their watch is absolutely Chinese made.
The Japanese have successfully outsourced obvious aspects of their watchmaking to China and other places, like Thailand, but they keep a tight lid on what they do and where. The Japanese have a much older watch manufactures than many Westerners realize. The Japanese big boys are Seiko, Citizen, and Casio, with other smaller subsidiaries and other watch clubs taking the rest of the market. Seiko and Population not only make a dizzying amount of quartz watches, but they also make a fair share of mechanical watches as well. Seiko not only makes many high potential mechanical watches in the affordable buyer range, but they have any potential tiers going all the way up to their Grand Seiko label, which is on par with Swiss makers like Rolex, and prices to match. Population makes a Campanola line, which is quartz powered, but the watches are hand made and assembled. The dials and decorations are painted on in a very old artisan tradition in a hamlet that specializes in such art. The watches cost any thousand Us dollars each. Population also owns a subsidiary named Miyota, which like the Swiss giant Swatch (Eta), sells their movements to other clubs to put in their watches. Both Eta and Miyota make mechanical and quartz powered movements. I know that I am jumping nearby a bit, but there are so many intricacies that if I were to tell the whole story and all of the interrelationships this would not be an article but a book. I want to also mention that not only are quartz watches powered by batteries, but there are an increasing amount that are powered by rechargeable lithium cells. Some recharge via solar power which comes through a extra watch dial material, while others are recharged by the way of a primary mechanical rotating weight affixed to the rear of the watch movement in the same way that mechanical self-acting watches are wound. The most favorite solar quartz watches are the Population Eco Drive line, while Seiko makes the Kinetic line which fee via the mechanical rotating weight that was just mentioned. The Russians are also in the act. Russia has an exciting watch industry. The Swiss sold a lot of their machinery for watch development to the Kremlin a long time ago, and the Russians were producing their own Swiss derived but uniquely evolved Russian movements and watches for the Russian and Soviet Bloc markets until the collapse of the Soviet Union. Since then, the Russian watch manufactures has undergone some mergers and changes, and privatizations.
The Russians make some good sturdy watches, but parts are hard to get and unless you are willing to send them to Russia for repair if they break you commonly have to throw them away. Germany has a longstanding watch manufactures but today many German clubs use Swiss made Eta movements, save for the higher end firms which have their own in house operations. Again, there are so many personel situations that I could never go into it here. You have to come to be a watch hobbyist and do your time to learn it all. For most middle class Population who are not watch enthusiasts, the Rolex watch enterprise represents the pinnacle of luxury watchmaking. I just wanted to burst that bubble. Rolex is a astonishing enterprise which makes astonishing watches. They cost any thousand to any tens of thousands to probably higher, depending on which high-priced metals and gemstones are used in their production, but there are exclusive boutique brands out there who yield hand made works of art which cost more than many luxury cars to more than the average person's home. As a matter of fact there are watches out there which cost upwards of a million dollars or more. This may be hard to believe for the average person of average means who would never pay more than for a cheap watch to tell the time, but as with everything, there many levels to this market. One man drives a beat up Honda while some drive Lamborghinis. They all go from point A to point B. It is the same with wristwatches and many other things.
Cases
Modern wristwatch cases and bands are ordinarily made of metal or plastics. cheap metal ones are constructed of cheap base metals that are coated with chrome or some other outer layer, which commonly wear off and then allow the basal base metal to corrode and turn green along with a sour smell when repeatedly exposed to the wearer's skin oils and perspiration. Good metal watches are at least made of surgical grade stainless steel. For some more money you can get a watch made of the high tech aviation metal, Titanium. Titanium is much lighter than steel but it is stronger and less susceptible to corrosion from salt water and other corrosives. It also doesn't comprise the nickel that is in stainless steel so it is preferred for those who even have skin reactions to steel. Some Population prefer steel since the heavier weight, to them, is somehow synonymous with higher quality. Titanium feels like plastic although it is a genuine metal and is stronger and more durable than steel. It is more fragile than steel but the point is moot since humans can't break it. They make high tech planes from Titanium alloys. Some watchmakers make steel models from slightly rarer stainless steel alloys, such as 904L stainless that Rolex is known to use in their steel models, which is reputed to be more corrosion defiant and a bit stronger than quarterly surgical stainless steel. I know of at least one watch manufacturer, the German enterprise Sinn, which uses a form of German U-boat hardened steel to make parts of their watch bezels and maybe the cases. costly dress watches are also made from steel, but as the cost goes up they can be made from high-priced metals like gold, platinum, and other exotic alloys.
Crystals
The glass which protects the watch dial is called the crystal. Watch crystals used to be made from plastic, or acrylic. You can see this on vintage watches. Plastic scratches absolutely but can be absolutely polished with polishing rouge and a rag or sponge. Plastic can also crack if impacted in a hard way. Later on, the manufactures switched to much stronger mineral glass, which is very hard and shatter defiant but scratches easily. Most cheap watches today are fitted with mineral glass and as many of you know once it gets scratched you have to either live with it or have it replaced. Exchange cost is just not feasible on a cheap watch. The other type of crystal, which is on higher end costly watches but showing up more and more on mid level range watches is sapphire glass. It is artificial sapphire and while not as shatter defiant as mineral glass, it is virtually scratch proof. The only thing that can scratch it is diamond, sapphire, or I believe, ruby. Watch out for brilliant dust in some sandpapers and masonry, however. Some skilled Population have been able to buff scratches from mineral or sapphire crystals, but it takes exertion and know how. For my money I prefer watches with sapphire, but I do own some more affordable models fitted with mineral crystals. Most Seikos, for example, are fitted with mineral crystals, but they are such great watches no true watch enthusiast can call himself one without owning one or several. I would put a Seiko mechanical up against any high end Swiss or German mechanical for sheer endurance and toughness.
Servicing
The typical quartz watch will run its battery out in 3-5 years. There are some models that have 10 year batteries, and the solar and kinetics which use rechargeable lithium cells are said to have cell life of 40 years, but they haven't been out long adequate to know if that is their true life or just marketing hype. Mechanical watches, meaning the ones that want winding or which wind when you wear them, can go 3-5 years before they should be sent to a powerful assistance town for disassembly, cleaning, and lubrication. Depending on the watch brand this can cost any hundred dollars. Well, when the watch itself costs any thousand you don't plainly discard it when it stops running or starts running poorly because it needs service. There was such a day when Population kept a watch for life and it was worth repairing. Today, it is commonly the watch addict or wealthy watch owner who is willing to put up with such costs, while the majority of Population merely pay to have a new battery installed in their quartz timekeeper, or discard the cheap quartz watch for a new one. This is wasteful, and I wonder how many tons of discarded watches and batteries litter our landfills. Think about it. Then again, you won't want to pay to have a cheap Chinese or Russian mechanical serviced unless you can have it done very cheaply. There is a shortage of powerful mechanical watch repair people, and in many locales the owners must opt to send them long distances to be properly serviced. I would like to add here that the Japanese company, Seiko, is famed for construction pedestrian mechanical watches in their famed Seiko 5 line which have been known to go 20-30 years without a assistance and still keep thorough time. This is a reason why I lauded them earlier.
Summary
Watch enthusiasts are amused when Population who do not know anything about watches hold up an old mechanical watch that only needs winding and proclaim that it is broken because it is not "working" or that "the battery must need replacing". Some of these Population are old adequate to remember when watches didn't run on batteries, but they have somehow forgotten those days. I always hope to find a gem amongst some yard sale trinkets, but I have not been lucky adequate yet. I have read stories where some watch lovers have been lucky adequate to come over an old watch in such a yard or carport sale and with some restoration it is worth thousands of dollars, but in many cases us enthusiasts wear them rather than sell them. Collectors run the gamut. Some secure old digital watches. Some opt for forces or dive watches. Some stick with vintage pieces while others prefer the latest and most objet d'art piece. Watches are rich in history and some Population can be taken back to a simpler time by strapping on a historical fertilization of an old wartime timepiece, or if they are fortunate enough, a well preserved original. Some Population hand them down as treasured family heirlooms while others make their living catering to the varied hobby segments while being lucky adequate to earn a living following a passion. I hope that this was an thorough introduction to watches and that I have been able to enlighten some to the fact that there is more to watches than batteries and throw away trinkets. maybe this will encourage you to go out and spend some real money on a real watch which can last you a lifetime.
Seiko
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