History and working of a wristwatch
A wristwatch or a watch is used by people for referring to time. They first came into existence in the 16th century as a modification of spring powered clocks. But nowadays the modern watches have a lot more functions in addition to the display of time.
The most common type of wristwatches is worn on person’s wrist and tightened using a watchband made of leather, nylon, metal link or sometimes even materials like ceramic. Back in the times they were pocket watches which have been carried separately.
Due to the technological advances in the 21st century the watch design was greatly improved. Especially the technological advances in the fields of metallurgy, physical vapor deposition and composite materials are responsible for this improvements. More durable, more accurate, more reliable and more aesthetic materials are now being used for making watches.
Escapement is a kind of mechanism limiting and controlling the unwinding in the watch. A simple unwinding is converted into a periodic energy release this way. this is done by gear interlocking that switches between the states ‘driven’ and ‘free’.
The balance wheel forms a harmonic oscillator along with the spring or hairspring. The gear system motion in the watch is controlled by this oscillator. A pendulum clock works in a similar way.
Tourbillon is a rotating type of frame used for escapement. Using gravity it cancels out the effects of the bias in timekeeping. Without this tourbillon the watch would have to be kept in the same position for a lot of time.
The mechanism which measures the time and hence helps to display the correct current time is called movement in a watch. The movements can be electronic, mechanical and even the combination of both. Nowadays even if the face of the watch has a mechanical hand most watches use electronic timekeeping.
Watches are mostly classified on basis of their movements. The classifications are tuning fork movement, mechanical movement, electronic movement and radio controlled movement. A spring can be used as a power of source and self winding springs are also present. Some watches use electronic power, some are light powered and there are also watches powered by the wearer’s body heat.
Time displays are classified as analog or digital displays. At least two hands, one for hour and one for minute, are used by the analog display with the option of using a third hand for seconds. In a digital display an LCD screen is used. All regular watches show the time in at least hours and minutes. But with the digital evolution some watches also show the date, have alarms or features like lunar phases, perpetual calendar and a stopwatch.
In the end of the 20th century the swiss watch makers designed and produced a much cheaper version as their overall sales went down. Graphic designers helped to design a series of fashionable watches. International travelers were targeted with dual time watches. Jewelry and collectable watches were designed with a high miniaturization and precision combined with a highly aesthetic look. Some of the leading jewelry and collectable watches companies are Jaeger-LeCoultre, Rolex and Papet Phillipe. Among the mass-production companies you will find names like Breitling, Omega and Tag Heurer.
There are types of watches being computerized multifunction watches. They have features like digital cameras, calculators or even digital cameras, cellular phones and video games. Also many of todays watches are marketed as water resistant and are categorized on the basis of the water repelling capability.
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Tags: Advance, Balance Wheel, Electronic Movement, Escapement, Mechanical Movement, Movement, Oscillator, Pendulum Clock, Pocket Watch, Radio Controlled Movement, Spring Powered Clocks, Technology, Tourbillon, Tuning Fork Movement, Watch, Watchband, Wristwatch