Mechanical Watch Product

Overview

A mechanical watch keeps time without electronics, drawing its energy from a coiled mainspring rather than a battery. In the automatic configuration, an oscillating weight winds that spring from the natural motion of the wearer's wrist, so the watch runs continuously as long as it is worn. Stored energy is released in tiny, regulated increments by an escapement governed by a balance wheel, the mechanical analogue of a pendulum.

A self-winding caliber resolves the mainspring's torque into the precise oscillation of the balance through a chain of subassemblies. The Automatic Caliber is the beating heart of the watch, built up on a jewelled mainplate beneath its bridges. It is sealed inside the Case Assembly, whose screw-down crown, caseback, and gasketed sapphire crystal give the watch its water resistance. The time is read off the Dial & Hands assembly, where lumed hands sweep over applied markers and a date wheel shows through an aperture, and the whole watch is worn on the Bracelet.

How it works

Power begins in the mainspring barrel, a coiled flat spring inside a toothed drum that delivers torque to the going (gear) train. The train steps that torque up in speed through the centre, third, and fourth wheels until it reaches the escape wheel.

The escapement meters this energy. A Swiss lever pallet fork alternately locks and releases the escape wheel, and at each release delivers a precise impulse to the balance wheel through its roller jewel. The balance, restored by its hairspring, swings back and forth at a fixed frequency, dividing time into equal beats. An index regulator adjusts the rate by changing the active length of the hairspring.

The automatic winding module carries an oscillating rotor on a ball bearing; reverser wheels rectify its bidirectional motion into one winding direction so the rotor tops up the mainspring continuously. The keyless works switch the crown between winding and hand-setting, while the under-dial motion works divide the motion 12:1 to drive the hour hand.', },

'quartz-watch': { specs: [ ['Type', 'Analog quartz wristwatch'], ['Movement', 'Electronic quartz, stepper-motor analog'], ['Resonator', '32.768 kHz tuning-fork quartz crystal'], ['Accuracy', '±15 seconds/month'], ['Motor', 'Lavet-type single-phase stepper'], ['Hands', 'Hour, minute, sweep seconds'], ['Complications', 'Date window'], ['Power', '1.55 V silver-oxide button cell'], ['Battery life', '~2–3 years'], ['Case material', 'Stainless steel'], ['Case diameter', '38 mm'], ['Crystal', 'Mineral or sapphire'], ['Water resistance', '50 m (5 ATM)'], ['Strap', 'Leather or steel with pin buckle'], ], body: '## Overview

A quartz watch tells time by counting the vibrations of a quartz crystal. When a small voltage is applied across the crystal it flexes at a highly stable frequency, exactly 32,768 times per second. An integrated circuit divides this oscillation down to one pulse per second, and that pulse advances the hands. Because the crystal's frequency varies far less than a mechanical balance, quartz watches are accurate to within seconds per month while costing a fraction of a comparable mechanical caliber.

The watch translates a steady electrical pulse into the motion of three hands. The Quartz Movement holds the oscillator, motor, and gearing; it sits inside the gasketed Case Assembly behind a Dial carrying applied hour markers. A Hand Set of hour, minute, and second hands reads the time, a Date Mechanism shows the calendar through a window, and the watch fastens to the wrist with a Strap.

How it works

At the core of the movement, a circuit board carries the timekeeping IC, the 32.768 kHz quartz resonator, and a trimmer capacitor for fine rate adjustment. The IC's frequency divider produces one electrical pulse each second and sends it to the coil block, energising the stator around a Lavet-type stepper motor.

The stepper's permanent-magnet rotor advances exactly one step per pulse, a half-turn that the rotor pinion feeds into the gear train. Train wheels and pinions step this motion down to drive the seconds wheel directly, while the motion works, cannon pinion, minute wheel, and hour wheel, produce the 12:1 ratio between minute and hour hands.

A silver-oxide cell supplies the 1.55 V the IC needs, held against a contact spring by a battery clamp. Pulling the crown engages the setting mechanism: its sliding clutch and setting lever redirect crown rotation away from winding (there is none) into hand-setting and date correction, then return the movement to its running state when the crown is pushed home.', },

'wall-clock': { specs: [ ['Type', 'Battery quartz analog wall clock'], ['Movement', 'Self-contained quartz module'], ['Resonator', '32.768 kHz tuning-fork quartz crystal'], ['Accuracy', '±20 seconds/month'], ['Motor', 'Single-coil Lavet stepper'], ['Drive', '1 Hz step pulse'], ['Hands', 'Hour, minute, continuous second'], ['Power', 'Single 1.5 V AA cell'], ['Battery life', '~12 months'], ['Dial diameter', '300 mm'], ['Frame', 'Moulded plastic or pressed metal'], ['Lens', 'Flat glass or acrylic'], ['Mounting', 'Keyhole hanger over wall screw'], ], body: '## Overview

A wall clock is a large analog timepiece driven by an inexpensive quartz module running from a single dry cell. It works on the same principle as a quartz wristwatch, a 32.768 kHz crystal divided down to a one-second pulse, but the mechanism is scaled up and simplified: moulded plastic gears, a single AA battery, and a snap-together housing. The result keeps reliable time for about a year on one cell while sweeping three hands across a wide printed dial.

A wall clock packages this timing module behind a protective face. The Quartz Movement Module generates and reduces the timing pulse, and it is mounted inside the Case / Housing, which holds the printed dial, applied numerals, and a protective lens within its frame. The Hand Set presses onto the movement's concentric shafts, power comes from the Battery Compartment, and the Shaft Mounting Nut & Washer clamps the movement shaft collar through the dial and case.

How it works

Inside the movement housing, a small oscillator circuit board carries the quartz crystal and a CMOS divider IC. The IC counts the crystal's 32,768 oscillations per second and emits one drive pulse every second to the stepper coil.

That pulse energises the drive coil of a single-coil Lavet stepper motor. The shaped soft-iron stator channels the coil's flux around a permanent-magnet rotor, which advances one half-turn per pulse. The rotor's motion enters the reduction gear train, where successive plastic wheel-and-pinion stages step the speed down to the correct hour, minute, and second outputs.

The slowest stages drive the concentric hand shaft, also called the cannon pinion, which carries the hour, minute, and second arbors out through the centre of the dial. A friction bushing on the seconds arbor sets hand drag so the second hand holds position between steps. Spring contacts feed the AA cell's voltage from the battery compartment to the board, completing the circuit.', },

'grandfather-clock': { specs: [ ['Type', 'Mechanical longcase pendulum clock'], ['Movement', 'Weight-driven brass, three-train'], ['Trains', 'Time, hour strike, quarter chime'], ['Escapement', 'Anchor (recoil)'], ['Regulator', 'Seconds-beating pendulum'], ['Pendulum length', '0.994 m (1-second beat)'], ['Drive', 'Three cast weights on cables'], ['Power reserve', '8 days (weekly winding)'], ['Winding', 'Crank key, three arbors'], ['Chime', 'Westminster on tuned tubular rods'], ['Chime rods', '5 tuned tubes'], ['Calendar', 'Animated moon-phase disc'], ['Case', 'Wood longcase: hood, trunk, base'], ['Height', '2.1 m (7 ft)'], ], body: '## Overview

A grandfather clock, properly a longcase clock, is a tall freestanding pendulum clock whose mechanism is powered by falling weights. Its height is functional: the long case gives a heavy weight room to descend over a full week, and it accommodates a seconds-beating pendulum nearly a metre long, whose period sets the rate. Three separate gear trains let the clock keep time, strike the hours, and play a quarter-hour chime melody on a set of tuned rods.

The clock assembles a weight-driven brass mechanism within a tall piece of furniture. The brass Movement sits on the seatboard of the Cabinet, reading the time through the Dial Assembly with its chapter ring and moon-phase complication. Rate is governed by the Pendulum hung behind the movement; energy is supplied by three cast Driving Weight units on cables; the strike and chime hammers sound the Chime Rod Set; the hood and trunk are glazed with the Glass Panel Set; and the weights are raised weekly with the Winding Key / Crank.

How it works

The movement is built between two brass plates spaced by turned pillars, which carry every arbor of the three trains. Each weight, hung over a pulley, drives one train through a ratchet-and-click winding arbor that lets it be wound without running the train backwards.

The time (going) train is regulated by an anchor escapement: its anchor rocks once per pendulum swing, releasing the escape wheel one tooth at a time and returning an impulse to the pendulum through the crutch. The seconds-beating pendulum's rate is fine-tuned by raising or lowering its bob with the rating nut.

At the quarter hours, the chime train is released; a pinned barrel lifts the hammers in sequence to play the Westminster melody on the tubular chime rods, while an air-brake fly governor paces the train at the correct tempo. On the hour the strike train counts out the hour on a separate hammer. Under the dial, the motion works divide 12:1 to drive the hour hand, and a 59-tooth lunar wheel advances the moon-phase disc one step per day.