Time Revolution

You may feel it’s quaint to talk about user-wound, mechanical watches. Certainly when you buy a watch, you’ll likely just type the kind that needs a battery change now and then. Wear a watch like that, and it pretty much runs on its own, without fuss. But some are still attracted to a mechanical watch, meaning that this kind of timepiece is far from extinct.

How does a mechanical watch actually work, though? Its power stems from the tiny metal mainspring, which curls inside a cylindrical barrel. This barrel’s teeth interact with and move various gears throughout the watch. As the mainspring is wound tight, it gains tension and mechanical energy, which pushes out in a way that turns the gears.

Separate gears move the minute hand around the watch completely in one hour, and take the hour hand fully around in twelve hours. And in some watches, still more gears countdown sixty seconds, taking the second hand through a full turn in one minute. The regular movement of these parts creates the ticking sound in a mechanical watch.

The implication of winding the mainspring tightly, then using that force to push all those gears, is that eventually its tension diminishes and it loosens. Naturally, this is when the wearer has to rewind the spring and recreate the tension. There’s even a bit of an art to this: they should wind the watch only until they feel resistance. Any more winding, and the spring becomes too tight.

Some might wonder about the ongoing attraction of a mechanical watch. After all, a quartz watch with a battery keeps more accurate time. And it is, furthermore, less expensive than a mechanical. So what’s the draw?

For most mechanical fans, it’s the hint of “romance.” A quartz watch feels unexciting: it slows down, and you just pull out one module (the battery) and slot in another. But a mechanical watch, to keep accurate time, must be finely crafted so the parts work together with precision. A flaw in a gear or in the mainspring, and the whole process collapses.

The independence of the self-powering watch makes it seem almost indifferent to, and distant from, its wearer. But a watch that needs winding requires interaction. In a strange way, people who love mechanical watches feel an almost personal relationship with their timepieces, combined with a love of craftsmanship, and maybe an affinity with history and tradition. Non-winding watches may be very practical and efficient – but a well-crafted mechanical watch dazzles and seduces.

If you think watch repair is simple, you’re in for a surprise. And if you’re wondering why a thorough cleaning or repair can sometimes be expensive, take a quick glance at what the technician needs to do, and do perfectly. Most of us now think in “modular” terms, meaning that if something goes wrong in a device, you pull out the offending module and just slide in another one. But this approach just doesn’t work with most watches, apart from replacing batteries now and then.

There’s a reason a watch’s inner workings are called the “movement.” Most of the tiny parts inside are moving, and must do so together. Everything has to be adjusted and coordinated with everything else. Even stationary parts must support the accurate motions of the moving parts. Get one movement wrong, and it will ruin the movement of everything else, and the functioning of the watch.

An expert repair technician has several things to keep track of at once, all involving tiny motions with very small tools. Even just getting the movement out of the watch case can be tricky, since the methods vary from model to model. And the difference between models continues from there, because each type of watch has different internal mechanisms, which the technician must know and understand intimately.

If the watch is vintage, its mechanism may be in delicate shape, with parts hard to find. And once located, they must be installed with care. That care, of course, really applies to all watches. If a part is just a 1/10 of a millimetre larger or smaller than it should be, again it will throw off the movement of the whole watch. And forcing a part when it’s balking for some reason can be equally damaging.

Are you getting a picture of the precision, patience, and extreme care required to do an expert watch repair? Once the mechanism is repaired and in place, then comes the fine tuning. After all, you don’t just want the parts coordinating – you want them to keep accurate time! That means fine adjustments until the parts move at just the right speed.

For a few years, watches declined in popularity, and so did the number of watch repair technicians. Now these people are sorely needed, as mechanical watches make a comeback in society. When you find a repair expert these days, be sure to keep in touch, because they do finely honed work and are worth their weight in gold.

Personalization is much in vogue today, whether you’re accessorizing an outfit or making your computer desktop all your own. Even company branding is a form of personalization, an attempt to reveal the unique qualities of your business and make it stand out. And some individuals take personalizing of their image to a whole added level, through body piercings and tattoos. That, of course, is probably just a little too permanent for most, but there may soon be another interesting way to demonstrate your individual flair. And that is personalization of your watch.

A watch can already act as a personal accessory, especially if you have several, and choose among them to suit the occasion. So a watch designed in different ways and used as jewellery may already be a part of your particular style. But again, unless you have the watch custom designed, you know there are others out there with exactly the same watch. So what if you could take one more step to make the watch distinctly your own, and personalize the dial itself?

This has become common practice for businesses, who use this as a way to keep themselves in the public eye. Some go low-key, placing a small version of their logo just below the center, while others make a bigger splash, setting it into the entire watch face. The art work is supplied by the company, and the graphic designer creates the art work and a die, from which it prints the chosen art directly onto the watch face. A company can print on the dials of relatively inexpensive watches, handing them out to clients for publicity. Or it can ask for finer work on a high-quality watch to be given to a star employee.

Now, what businesses have known for a while is becoming clear to individuals as well. There are few better ways to make your watch uniquely yours than to imprint your personal design on it. This service may be a little expensive – at the moment. But as more and more people become aware of this fascinating way to make a personal statement, it’s going to become easier and less expensive to do it.

Whether you’re running a business that wants to add this subtle form of publicity to your marketing efforts – or are an individual wanting to present a complete, unique personal look to the world – watch dial imprinting is a fascinating and unusual way to present your incomparable self to the world.

Is the wristwatch tradition about to fade away? Some think the advent of the smart phone has pretty much ended the need for this timepiece. If you constantly have your personal device in hand, checking email, surfing for news, texting, or working, it’s easy to glance to the edge of the screen where the time is always displayed. Who needs a watch strapped around their wrist?

But the interesting thing is that the smart phone and similar devices haven’t killed the watch, and it doesn’t look like they’re going to. At least not yet. Early in 2011 at Baselworld, the international watch and jewellery fair, many watchmakers unveiled timepieces that allow personalization in the same way as smart phones, and some even communicate with the phones. So wristwatches may yet return to popularity among smart phone users, in a
high-tech electronic way.

But even the traditional mechanical watch hasn’t disappeared, despite regular dire predictions. You can find the same range as before: fifteen-dollar watches at the drug store, two hundred-dollar watches in department stores, and personal timepieces for thousands of dollars at jewellery boutiques. Higher end watches are status symbols now, and serve as jewellery in addition to their practical use. And less expensive watches are still convenient for those occasional people who don’t have a phone in their hand every minute of the day.

What’s missing now, though, is something less tangible. Apart from jewellery stores, many places that sell watches no longer offer regular maintenance or repair along with the sale. If your watch stops, and it turns out that the problem isn’t merely a matter of changing the battery, you’re pretty much on your own.

This may not matter much if you’ve got a twelve-dollar watch that you can throw away and easily replace. And most high-end jewellery stores either still do repairs or have arrangements with reliable watch repair establishments. It’s those in the middle – the ones who bought quite well-made watches from good department stores – who could be out of luck.

That’s why it’s a smart idea to check about repair arrangements before you buy, rather than after something goes wrong. Because despite smart phone technology, the wristwatch isn’t going anywhere yet. So you need to be sure it will be well taken care of, so it will keep on ticking while you check that email, shake a colleague’s hand, or pick out jewellery to wear to that party tonight.