A Beginner’s Guide to Wristwatch Anatomy

Over the course of the past year, I have found myself increasingly intrigued by the world of watches because beyond their function as timekeeping devices, they are intricate works of engineering and design. Often blending art, technology, and history into a single wearable item, watches serve as both a unique fashion statement and a captivating hobby for many.

For those of you new to the world of watches, like me, here are some introductory concepts to help get you started.

Starting off, just as cars need an engine to function, watches also need an engine to tell time. This engine is referred to as a “movement” in the watch world. While there are countless different movements created by watch manufactures that exhibit innovative craftsmanship, all of them fall into one of two categories: quartz or mechanic.

You can learn more about watch movements on this post, but as a summary quartz watches use a battery and a quartz crystal (hence the name) for accurate timekeeping while mechanic watches use gears and springs, either requiring manual winding by hand (through twisting the crown) or automatic winding by wrist movement (where the motion of the wrist moves the rotor that powers the mainspring which then turns the gears).

While quartz watches are generally more accurate and less expensive, mechanic watches remain more desirable as they typically have more intricate design and engineering.

Now that we are familiar with the movements, we can delve into basic watch anatomy.

Here are the main components of a watch.

Source: Albertreview

Band: Straps the watch to your wrist. It can come in a variety of materials, with the most common being leather strap, metal bracelet, fabric and rubber.

Lugs: Secures the strap to the watch, sometimes referred to as the “watch horns”. Lugs come in different sizes and widths so it’s important you measure in between the lugs before shopping for a new band.

Case: Outer shell that holds the watch together and protects the movement from damage. They come in a variety of materials most commonly stainless steel, titanium, gold and ceramic as well as shapes such as round, tank, rectangle, and square.

Bezel: Outer ring around the dial, secures the watch crystal in place. While usually decorative, they can be functional too. For instance, watches that have rotating bezels can be used by divers to help them keep the time when underwater, and some can be used to set different time zones.

Dial: Face of the watch, where time is displayed.

Hands: Moving markers on the dial which tell you the time. There are usually three hands on the watch, for the hour, the minute, and the second.

Aperture: Small box on the dial of the watch which can display a variety of other information. It usually indicates the date but can also show you moon phases and tell you whether it’s day or night.

Crown: Small rotating button on the outside of the watch (typically on the right side) used to set time. On mechanical watches, the crown is also used to add power to the movement by manually winding it clockwise.

Pusher: Button on the outside of the watch (usually found below the crown) used to change and control the timepiece’s additional functions, such as the date, moon-phase, alarm setting, and more.

Crystal: Cover of the watch dial, helps keep the internal mechanism protected. Made to reduce glare, it is usually made out of acrylic, glass, mineral or synthetic sapphire.

Indices: Numbers or symbols on the dial indicating time.

Jewels: Found in the movement of a mechanical watch. Usually small synthetic sapphires or rubies, they act as bearings to reduce friction for the wheels.

Rotor: Only found in automatic watches, used to wind the watch and reserve power. As previously mentioned, they are powered by wrist movement.

Beyond timekeeping, watches can have extra features called “complications”. Despite the name, watch complications aren’t always complicated. Here I will take you through the major watch complications from the simplest to the most mechanically sophisticated, and provide an example of each.

Date display

The simplest complication is the addition of a date display.

The four most common varieties of date displays are: date window, big date, pointer date, and subsidiary dial. Other varieties of date display include day-date, triple calendar, perpetual calendar, annual calendar and equation of time (EOT).

Chronograph

Following date complications, the chronograph is the most common complication: a watch that has a stopwatch built into the movement. There are 5 main types of chronographs: monopoussoir, retour-en-vol, rattrapante, tachymeter, pulsimeter, telemeter and slide-rule.

Dual-time zone

Display time in another time zones. Common travel complications are the GMT and the world-timer.

Moonphase

Originally designe for sailors to predict the tides, the moonphase complication displays the lunar cycle.

Power reserve indicator

Displays a watch’s power reserve is the amount of time, measured in hours or days, that it will continue to run before it needs rewinding.

Alarm (réveil)

As the name suggests, the alarm function can be set independently of the main time to remind the wearer of an event.

Tourbillon

Although not really a complication by definition, as it doesn’t add an additional function to the timekeeping, the Tourbillon improves the balance of the watch, eliminating timekeeping errors caused by gravity and changing watch positions.

Minute repeater

A sophisticated complication that audibly chimes the time on demand. Activated by a slide or button, it uses a series of tuned gongs and hammers to produce a melodic sound representing the hours, quarter-hours, and minutes.  It was a fairly common complication for pocket watches around the 18th and 19th centuries and is now produced as a collectable, rather than a tool.

Sources:

1. “Watch Anatomy Guide: Parts of a Watch.” H&T Pawnbrokers, https://handt.co.uk/blogs/articles/watch-anatomy-guide-parts-of-a-watch.

2. “Anatomy of a Watch: Parts.” Albert Review, https://albertreview.com.au/watches/anatomy-of-a-watch-parts/.

3. “Every Watch Complication Explained.” Geckota, https://www.geckota.com/en-ca/blogs/news/every-watch-complication-explained.

4. “Watch Complications.” Tourneau, https://www.tourneau.com/watch-education/watch-complications.html.

5. “Watch Complications.” Teddy Baldassarre, https://teddybaldassarre.com/blogs/watches/watch-complications.