KnowledgePressemitteilungen/Werbung
Glossary
Here you can find the most important terms concerning watches and their brief explanations.
A
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- A.m.
- An indication which can be found on digital clocks frequently. a.m. (ante= before, meridiem= noon) refers to the period from midnight till twelve o’clock at noon. p.m. (post = after) refers to the period from noon till midnight.
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- Accutron
- Electronic tuning-fork watch. Designed in 1960 by Max Hetzel (Bulova). After 10 years of production this system was replaced by the quartz watch.
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- Acrylic crystal
- Material for watch crystals, also known as plexi crystals. Watches of the 50s and 60s were solely made of plexi crystals.
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- Adjustment
- This is the regulation of the daily rate of a watch using a hairspring regulator and a regulatior pointer.
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- Adjustment ring
- A rotating ring on the outer edge of a watch case which serves for the determination of additional data, as world time or timing of diving.
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- Aero-Compax
- A rare collector’s chronograph by Universal Geneve, with hour and minute hand and Momento dial. (subsidiary dials at 12:00 with 2 hands)
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- Analog watch
- Conventional watch with dial and hands.
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- Antimagnetic
- This means that the watch will not stop to work when it is exposed to a normal magnet. Alloys are used which are activated when the watch is exposed to stronger magnetic fields.
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- Automatic watch
- A wristwatch whose spring is wound through normal movements of its owner. This is done by a rotor, which rotates, following the laws of gravitation.
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- Autoquartz
- An autoquartz movement is a quartz movement, which draws his energy from mechanical rotor instead of a battery.
B
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- Barrel
- A wheel composed of a toothed disc and a cylindrical box closed by a cover. The barrel turns freely on an arbor and contains a spring such as the mainspring. The spring is hooked to the barrel at its outer end and to the arbor at its inner end. The barrel meshes with the first pinion of the train of a watch. Barrels rotate slowly: for a watch mainspring barrel, the rate of rotation may vary (based on the design) between one ninth and one sixth of a revolution per hour.
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- Bearing
- Drilling for the pivots of the wheelwork. Mostly, the drillings are provided with jewels for fast rotating wheels.
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- Bezel
- The round edge of a movement.
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- Bivouac
- Wristwatch with built-in altimeter.
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- Blue screws
- Steel hands or screws are blued for reasons of fashion and protections against oxidation.
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- Brass
- The basic platinums and bridges are made of brass.
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- Breguet
- Abraham-Louis Breguet (1747 – 1823) is considered to be one of the most important watchmaker masters of watch history. Most of his inventions are regarded as innovative for watchmaking, e.g. the Tourbillon and the Breguet Spiral.
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- Breguet-hand
- A typical form of the hand, which Breguet used for his watches: A plain ring is embedded before the top of the hand.
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- Breguet-Spiral
- Spiral spring with an overcoil raised and turned in towards the center, which ensures the concentric development of the spring as the balance oscillates.
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- Bridge
- Part of the movement.Is used instead of full plate and enables better control and correction of the contact and an insight into the movement.
C
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- Cabochon
- Domed gemstone
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- Calendar watch
- The term is used to refer to any clock that shows the time of day. In addition, astronomical watches show the week, the month and the year. Calendar watches are very valuable.
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- Caliber
- Technical term for the form and the size of a movement. The number of the caliber indicates the model.
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- Caliber
- A certain movement
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- Carat
- The carat is a measure of the purity of gold in alloys. Therefore 24-carat gold is pure fine gold. A gold movement of a valuable watch mostly has 18 carat or 14 carat. The carat is almost always indicated on the back.
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- Carriage clock
- A watch for easy reading in more than one time zone.
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- Centre wheel
- First wheel in the wheelwork of a mechanical watch.
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- CET
- Abbreviation for Central European Time, also called Greenwich Mean Time.
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- Chamfer
- In order to avoid attrition pivots are chamfered.
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- Champlevé-technique
- A technique for production of dials (predominantly in the 17th and 18th century).
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- Chaton
- When the watch is very precious, the jewels of ruby are put in chatons of bronze or gold. Then they are attached with two or three screws in the plates of the movement.
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- Chronograph
- A stopwatch (greek: chronos =time and grapho = I write) with an activation mechanism in combination with a normal watch.
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- Chronograph-Rattrapante
- Chronograph with two pushers and two central second hands, the chronograph hand and the Rattrapante. Like this, two different actions with the same beginning but a different duration can be registered.
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- Chronometer
- Precision watch with extra large case and dial for navigation or scientific use.
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- Chronometer
- Only mechanical watches certified by the Controle Officiel Suisse des Chronometres (Official Swiss Chronometer Testing Institute, C.O.S.C.) may use the word 'Chronometer' on them. Each chronometer can be identified by a serial number, engraved on its movement. A chronometer certificate can only be obtained by the finest of movements which are used in bespoke timepieces of the highest accuracy. Each movement is individually tested for fifteen days, in five positions, at three different temperatures. Only if the movements pass the testing period they receive a certificate of accuracy.
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- Chronometer escapement
- A free balance wheel escapement, predominantly used for sea chronometers, but also for pocket watches.
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- Chronometries
- The umbrealla term for all branches concerning time measurement.
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- Compensation balance
- A balance-wheel constructed in such a way that its diameter (variations in which can affect its rate) remains constant at all temperatures, despite the tendency of its material to expand and contract with heat and cold. This is usually done by making the rim of the wheel out of two different metals (brass and steel) fused together so that their differing expansion rates cancel each other out. This rim is split at two points so that the resulting fluctuations cannot cause it to buckle.
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- Complication
- Technical term when the watch has more devices than showing the time, e.g. an additional alarm watch, date indication or other indications.
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- COSC
- The Contrôle Officiel Suisse des Chronomètres (C.O.S.C.) is an impartial Swiss testing institution.
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- Countdown-Timer
- A backwards running stopwatch, which gives acoustic signals when reaches 0 minutes and 0 seconds.
D
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- Date indication
- Display of date, weekday, month and year on the dial of a watch. The wheels of a mechanical watch switch the panels, which show the weekday or a date in the display.
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- Deviation
- There are different factors for deviation, such as changing temperatures, shocks, irregularly wearing or dirt. The watchmaker has no influence on these factors. Deviation is meant, when a watch runs fast 15 seconds on one day and 20 seconds on the next day.
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- Dial
- Face of a watch, on which time and further functions are displayed by markers, hands, discs or through windows.
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- Digital indication
- Time specification without hands, but LCD numbers.
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- Domed
- Crystal for example
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- Doublé
- An adornment metal. A base metal was provided with a golden coating. A golden alloy with a fineness of 333/000 or 585/000 is used, but never fine gold.
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- Duplex escapement
- Latent escapement, which escapement wheel has to rows of gears, which are located upright to each other.
E
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- Elinvar
- Elinvar is a metallic alloy with a modulus of elasticity which does not vary with temperature, consequently has a very low thermal expansion. It is therefore suitable for the production of balance wheels.
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- Enamel
- Enamel is the result of fusing powdered glass (silicates) to a substrate by firing, usually between 800 and 00 degrees Celsius. The powder melts and flows and hardens to a smooth, durable vitreous coating on metal, glass or ceramic. Watches with an enamel dial are very valuable today.
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- Engaged
- When the gear wheels or other gear components are in circuit, they are engaged.
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- Escapement
- The escapment consists of three parts: gear wheel, lever and balance. An escapement can be used for different watches with suitable movement.
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- Escapement
- A mechanism which releases the power of the spring over the wheels to the balance wheel of a watch. Its function is to suspend the gears’ motion at regular intervals and to supply energy to the balance.
F
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- Fine tuning
- 1. Procedure of the watchmaker, whose intent is the very accurate adjustment of the watch. 2. Mechanism of the watch for very accurate adjustment. The precision adjustment is done with adjustment screws or a swan neck regulation.
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- Flute
- Vertical decoration on the movement.
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- Flyback-function
- Some chronographs are equipped with the flyback function, especially watches meant for pilots. It is much easier from the point of view of time saving, to instantly restart the chronograph with one push of the button. In French, this function is called 'Retour en Vol'.
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- Frame
- In the past, bearing jewels of very high-quality watches were not moulded in the bridges or plates, but framed like a gemstone in a jewellery.
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- Frequency
- (Abbr.: Hz-Hertz). Frequency is the measurement of the number of oscillations per hour. Modern mechanical movements have a rate of 28.800 oscillations per hour or 4 Hz.
G
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- Geneva stripes
- Frequently used decoration on the bridges of fine watches, applied before the galvanic refinement.
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- Glucydur
- Alloy of 2-3% beryllium and copper.
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- GMT
- Greenwich Mean Time is a term originally referring to mean solar time at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich in England. It is now often used to refer to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) when this is viewed as a time zone. Standard time zones can be defined by geometrically subdividing the Earth's spheroid into 24 lunes (wedge-shaped sections), bordered by meridians each 15° of longitude apart. For example, New York has GMT -5, Sydney +8.
H
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- Half hunter cased watch
- Pocket watch with a hinged cover. This cover is drilled in the middle, so the wearer can see the position of the hands without opening the cover.
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- Hardened mineral crystals
- The surface is refined through a chemical treatment or heating. It is about as twice as scratch-resistant as normal mineral crystal.
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- Helium release valve
- A helium release valve allows any overpressure that may have been trapped inside the watch housing to escape quickly when the external pressure drops again. Especially in an atmosphere containing helium, the internal pressure increases quickly, since helium molecules are smaller than other air molecules.
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- High-frequency watch
- Balance wheels with more than 28.800 oscillations per hour. In the late 1980s, there were even produced watches with 36.000 oscillations. It is believed that a higher amount of oscillations cannot be affected by outer influences.
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- Horology
- Horology is the study of the science and art of timekeeping devices.
I
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- Incabloc
- Shock protection system, which uses a specially shaped spring to allow the delicate jewels and pivots to shift in their settings under impact until a stronger shoulder of the staff contacts the strong metal endpiece. When the impact is over, the springs guide the parts back to their original positions. Was developed in the 1950s.
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- Indication
- A device with which the course of time, the clock-work mechanism and its sub mechanism is shown.
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- Injection apparatus
- Apparatus for fixing the jewels in the movement plate or the bridge.
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- Integrated circuit (IC)
- A miniaturized electronic circuit that has been manufactured in the surface of a thin substrate of semiconductor material. These IC are the core of quartz watches e.g.
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- Intermediate wheel chronograph
- Classic chronograph. The start, the stopp and the FlyBack position of the hands is run by the intermediate wheel.
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- Invar
- Invar is an alloy of iron (64%) and nickel (36%). Due to its low coefficient of thermal expansion it is used in precision instruments.
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- Iron
- From the 13th century till the middle of the 16th century, predominantly iron was used fort he production of movements and cases. In these times, iron was a valuable metal. Today, iron watches are very treasured collector’s items.
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- Isochronous
- Isochronous means having an equal time difference or occurring simultaneously. A pendulum's oscillation is approximately isochronous, regardless of amplitude (assuming the amplitudes in question are sufficiently small). If a diagram is drawn, 'contour' lines connecting periods of equal time difference are called isochrones.
J
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- Jackson metal
- An alloy of copper, zinc and stannous for metal objects that are compressed.
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- Jaquet-Droz
- Famous Swiss watchmaker family of the late eighteen century. Today, particularly their mechanical automata are inestimable collector's items.
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- Jewels
- Artificial ruby with a central whole. Used to reduce attrition of the pivots.
L
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- Lance hands
- Hand, which form reminds of a lance.
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- LCD display
- Technical term for the electro-optical indication with Liquid Cristal Display.
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- LED display
- Technical term for the electro-optical indication with Light Emitting Diod.
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- Lépine case
- Pocket watch with crown winding and open case.
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- Lever
- The lever is the connection between the movement and the balance wheel. Timed by the balance wheel, alternately stops and releases the escape wheel and is thus responsible for actually carrying out the timing function of the balance. The lever is the most strained component of a mechanical movement.
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- Lever escapement
- lever, gear wheel and the whole balance wheel are assembled on an own panel.
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- Ligne
- A unit of length that was in use prior to the French adaptation of the metric system and is still used by French and Swiss watchmakers to measure the size of a watch movement. The standardized conversion for a ligne is 2,2558291 mm.
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- Liquid crystal display
- Uses very small amounts of electric power. LCD displays utilize two sheets of polarizing material with a liquid crystal solution between them. An electric current passed through the liquid causes the crystals to align so that light cannot pass through them. Each crystal, therefore, is like a shutter, either allowing light to pass through or blocking the light.
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- Lithium battery
- Batterys which are used for calculators, personal computers or watches. They do not contain toxic heavy metal and can be recycled easily.
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- Local time
- Time defined by astronomical observation or sundials. It varies daily. The local times of two cities differ in the difference of their geographical lenghts. The central local time of bigger areas is the zone time.
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- Luminous dials
- Dials, which have self-luminous or afterglowing numerals, which enable the better reading of the watch in the night. Some manufacturers even use complete luminous dials. Produced since around 1905, after there were developped affordable luminous color.
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- Lunation
- Other term for moon phases. The lunar phases vary cyclically as the Moon orbits the Earth, according to the changing geometry of the Earth, Moon, and Sun. The lunation takes about 29,5 days. The moon phase indication is a popular complication on mechanical watches.
M
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- Manual winding watch
- A watch whose spring has to be wound manually every day with the crown. In the past, this had to be done with a small key. In the middle of the past century, the crown winding was invented. The spring has a power reserve of about 36-40 hours.
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- Manufactur
- Watch producer, wich manufactures at least one Ebauche (or raw movement).
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- Mariage
- A mariage (French for marriage) is the coalition of two contrary matters which did not belong together as yet. In the applied arts as well as in the watchmaker industry, a mariage is the assembly of several, mostly antique components to a "new old" watch, which originally did not exist in this form. This procedure is especially common in the clock industry. In this way, the watchmaker can take several suitable components of a clock, which does not work any more and can put it together to one piece, which works. When it fits in the clock as a whole, the watchmaker can put new components as well in it. A mariage is not a historically valuable object. Legally, it is a counterfeit. If a vendor claims that a mariage is original in order to pretend premium origin is committing an offense.
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- Marine Chronometer
- Very accurate watch on ships, very important for navigation.
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- Mechanical watch
- Watches, which are run by a spring.
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- Microrotor
- Automatic wristwatch movement to eliminate the sizable external oscillating weight inherent. It has a much smaller weight that is entirely integrated into the chassis of the movement. This design allows for a substantially slimmer automatic watch.
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- Mineral crystal
- Most used crystal for wristwatches. Is very scratch-resistant and moreover very well-prized.
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- Minute
- A unit of time equal to 1/60th of an hour and to 60 seconds.
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- Minute graduation
- The graduation of minutes on the dial, frequently enclosed in two circles.
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- Moon phase
- The different stages of the moon like waning moon, new moon, waxing moon, half moon and full moon. The indication of the moon phases was always a popular complication in the watch industry.
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- Music watch
- Watch, whose movement is linked with a musical mechanism, which plays music every hour or on call.
N
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- Nivarox
- Due to the alloy of different metalls, the mainspring stabilizes the movement of the watch and makes it more resistant to temperature variations.
O
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- Officer's watch
- Technically accomplishedand decorative carriage clock of the 18th and 19th century, mostly with a brass case, striking mechanism and repitition, frequently with quarter chime and alarm movement. The perfectly designed Swiss officer's watches with gilt bronze case are very famous.
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- Oscillation
- The angle of the balance wheel between its reversal points.
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- Overcoil hairspring
- Mostly referred to as a Bréguet hairspring or Bréguet overcoil, is an ideal form of hairspring with which near perfect timekeeping can be achieved. Specifically, unlike a normal, curbed, flat hairspring, the overcoil form allows the spring to breathe concentrically. Nowadays only used for aesthetic reasons.
P
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- P. m
- Abbreviation for the time from noon to midnight (post = after, meridiem = noon)
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- Perpetual Calendar
- Complicated additional feature, mostly in mechanical watches fort he display of date, weekday, month, year and phase of the moon, and with regard of the leap year. Watches with a perpetual calendar can only be found in the premium price segment, due to their low production numbers and their extensive construction and manufacturing expenditure.
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- Plaqué
- Electrolytic (galvanic) applied golden plating. Indicated in Micron. The actual plating usually consists of 585 gold (14 carat).
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- Plate
- Carries the movement. The wheelwork is embedded between the mostly two plates.
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- Poising Tool
- Tool for controlling the static balance of the balance wheel.
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- Positions
- Wristwatches are worn in different positions. That is why the position when the watch is adjusted is very important. There are 5 different positions: "crown left", "crown top", "crown down", "dial top", "dial down". Precision watches are adjusted in these 5 positions in order to enable a reliable accuracy.
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- Power reserve
- The maximum running period of a mechanical movement after full winding.
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- Private Label
- Important branch of the watch industry. Watches, which are sold under a cigarette, shoe or fashion label, usually are produced by a watch manufacturer, whose name does not appear on the dial.
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- Pulse
- In mechanical watches. The power release from the escapement is called pulse.
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- Pulse
- Pulse in quartz watches.
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- Pusher
- Watches with additional functions are provided with small pushers in order to enable confortable handling. They are located on the sides.
Q
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- Quartz movements
- Electronic movements which use an oscillating crystal. Today, the international standard frequency is 32768 Hz (Hertz per second).
R
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- Radio clock
- A radio clock is a quartz clock that is synchronized by a time code bit stream transmitted by a radio transmitter connected to a time standard such as an atomic clock. A radio-controlled clock consists of an antenna for receiving the RF time-code signal, a receiving circuit to convert the signal into the simple (digital) time code, and a controller circuit to decode the time-code bit stream(s) and to drive an output circuit. The long-wave transmitter DCF77 is located in Mainflingen, near Frankfurt / Main, This Transmitter sends the “legal time”, calculated by the ‘Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt’ in Braunschweig. The coverage of the transmitter can be 2000 km.
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- Railroader's watch
- Rugged, simply constructed, but reliable pocket watch. Built until the nineteen-twenties. A railroad is engraved on the back.
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- Ratchet
- A toothed wheel that is fixed by a square hole to the barrel arbor. A click (pawl) prevents the ratchet wheel from turning in the unwinding direction.
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- Ratch wheel
- Part of the winding mechanism. It is a mechanism that permits rotation in one direction only. A click prevents it from turning in the direction for unwinding. A ratchet-wheel sometimes has a polished sink.
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- Rate
- No watch is perfectly accurate. There are different factors, such as quality, position, conditions of wearing, which can lead to variations of split seconds or even to several minutes per day. Rate is the difference between two stands. Stand is the read off time of a watch in two different days. “The rate of a watch is 7 seconds a day”, therefore means, that this watch deviates 7 seconds a day. The watchmaker can improve the rate of a watch through fine-tuning.
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- Rate model
- An oversized model of an escapement for visualization, used in the watchmaker apprenticeship. The usually very small details of an escapement are depicted in that way.
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- Rattrapante
- A hand on a movement with chronograph in the center. With this device, you can stop two times without stopping the actual second hand of the chronograph.
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- Reference
- Number or letter combination for identification of a watch model.
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- Regulator
- Pendulum clock with weight impulse and compensation pendulum. The biggest hand is the minute hand, whereas the hour and the second hand are peripheral in smaller dial areas.
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- Repeater
- A watch equipped with a strike or chime capable of indicating the hour on demand and repeating it as often as desired. Allegedly, the repeater was developped for the disabled, which went blind. The complex mechanism makes clear, that at that time, only few veterans could afford such a precious watch. A relative of the repeater and also a Grande Complication is the Sonnerie, which gives you the hours automatically.
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- Rotor
- In automatic watches, the rotor is a freely, in both sides rotable segment. It is made of a very heavy metal, which rotates, when the watch is moved. In doing so, the spring is bent. The weight of the impetus is either rotating over the whole case, parallel to the movement ( central rotor), or integrated as a microrotor in the movement.
S
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- Sapphire crystal
- Artificially produced crystal, maximum hardness and scratch-resistance (9 Mohs). Only exceeded by diamonds.
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- Satin finish
- Very fine, mostly crosswise stripe grinding on watch cases.
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- Screw balance
- Balance
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- Screwdown crown
- Crown, which can be screwed together with the crown. This makes sure, the watch is completely waterproof.
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- Screwed bottom
- Botton with a winding, which is screwed in the case.
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- Screwed crown
- Applied in rugged watches with a high water-resistance, in order to obtain high density and shock-proof.
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- Sealing ring
- At least one sealing ring is attached to a waterproof watch at the case top, the crystal and the crown. Formerly, these sealing ring were made of cork, plumb or gum. Nowadays, different plastics are used instead.
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- See-through back
- Many mechanical watches have a see-through back today so that the owner can observe the very beautifully decorated movement and its functions.
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- Self winding
- Advanced winding of pocket watches by Abraham Louis Breguet (1747-1823) in 1780. Follows the principle of the pedometer. A weight, which is swaying, when the watch is weared and is attached to a lever winds the watch. In modern watches highly enhanced.
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- Shaped movement
- Every movement, which is not round. In the past, , shaped movements were used for lady’s watches.
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- Ship chronometer
- Watches, which were carried along on ships since the 17th century, mostly with chronometer escapement and gimbal of the movement.
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- Shockproof
- As defined by standard, a watch's ability to withstand an impact equal to that of being dropped onto a wood floor from a height of 1 meter.
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- Skeleton watch
- Movement on a watch where the plates have been removed or trimmed so that you can see the gears and other parts. Made by a skeletteur.
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- Small second
- A small second is mostly found on pocket watches or manual winding watches. It derives from the time, when the wheels in the wheelwork were arranged in a way, the second wheel was not in the center. The position from the small second depends on the movement construction, but is usually on 6 o'clock.
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- Solar powered
- Solar powered watches absorb the energy of the light and save it in a storage battery. There is no need for changing the batteries, since the watch is powered by the energy of the batteries.
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- Split Second Chrono
- A second big stop hand. Shows a interim time, when is paused. When released, continues synchronically with the other Stop hand.
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- Spring
- The most important component of portable watches. It was not until the early 16th century, that the watches became mobile due to the use of a spirally bent spring.
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- Spring bar
- Are used for watches, whose straps are not non-switched with the case. The case is attached to the center of the strap, held in place by a lug which threads through both case and strap and is locked in place with a screw. Spring bars should be replaced regularly.
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- Stainless steel
- A rustproof steel, which is used since the early 1930s for watchmaking. It can be an alloy from nickel and chrome or molybdenum and wolfram with steel.
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- Stop watch
- A stopwatch is a timepiece designed to measure the amount of time elapsed from a particular time when activated to when the piece is deactivated.
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- Sun pattern
- A decorating finish for circular surfaces. If the wave angle of the light changes, when the watch is moved, the reflected light goes around on the finished surface.
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- Swan neck regulation
- An adjustment device for the setting of the accurate rate of the watch.
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- Swiss made
- A watch is considered Swiss whose movement is Swiss, whose movement is encased in Switzerland and whose final control by the manufacturer takes place in Switzerland. Moreover, at least 50 percent of all components must originate from Switzerland and must be subjected to the technical controls there.
T
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- Tachymeter
- Used for rapid measurements and determines, electronically or electro-optically, the distance to target, and is highly automated in its operations. also used as the name of the scale sometimes inscribed around the rim of a watch. It can be used to compute speed based on travel time.
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- Three-quartel plate
- A big wheel bridge, which covers three quarter of the movement.
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- Timezone
- Standard time zones can be defined by geometrically subdividing the Earth's spheroid into 24 zones, bordered by meridians each 15° of longtitude apart. Starting at zero meridian (Greenwich).
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- Timezone watch
- Watch with two or more dials, on which the time of several timezones can be displayed.
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- Tourbillon
- (French for "whirlwind") is a type of mechanical clock or watch escapement that is designed to counter the effects of gravity and other perturbing forces that can affect the accuracy.
W
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- Watch rate certificate
- Official testing institutions, such as the Swiss COSC ('Controle Officiel Suisse des Chronomètres') are testing standard requirements of the accuracy of a watch. Watches which pass the test receive a watch rate certificate ('Bulletin de Marche').
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- Winding stem
- A steel stem with different accretions and a square bar. The crown is located on the winding stem.
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- Wood watch
- A rustic watch type, predominantly of wood from the 17th, 18th and 19th century. Typical for the Black Forest clock and the Swiss clock. Can wholly consist of wood. Also movement and case.
Y
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- Year watch
- A watch which has to be wound only once a year. Only very accurate and reliable movements are used for the fabrication.