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Watch Functions
All watches provide the time of day, giving at least the hour and minute, and usually the second. Most also provide the current date, and often the day of the week as well. However, many watches also provide a great deal of information beyond the basics of time and date. Some watches include alarms.
Other elaborated and more expensive watches, both pocket and wrist models, also incorporate striking mechanisms or repeater functions, so that the wearer could learn the time by the sound emanating from the watch. This announcement or striking feature is an essential characteristic of true clocks and distinguishes such watches from ordinary timepieces.
Complicated Watches
A complicated watch has one or more functionalities beyond the basic function of displaying the time and the date; such a functionality is called a complication. Two popular complications are the chronograph complication, which is the ability of the watch movement to function as a stopwatch, and the moonphase complication, which is a display of the lunar phase. Among watch enthusiasts, complicated watches are especially collectible.
Chronographs and Chronometers
The similar-sounding terms chronograph and chronometer are often confused, although they mean altogether different things. A chronograph is a type of complication, as explained above. A chronometer watch is an all-mechanical watch or clock whose movement has been tested and certified to operate within a certain standard of accuracy by the COSC (Contrôle Officiel Suisse des Chronomètres). The concepts are different but not mutually exclusive; a watch can be a chronograph, a chronometer, both, or neither.
Second Display
Some watches includes a second 12-hour display for UTC (as Pontos Grand Guichet GMT).
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Types of Watches
Fashionable Watches
At the end of the 20th century, Swiss watch makers were seeing their sales go down as analog clocks were considered obsolete. They joined forces with designers from many countries to reinvent the Swiss watch.
The result was that they could considerably reduce the pieces and production time of an analog watch. In fact it was so cheap that if a watch broke it would be cheaper to throw it away and buy a new one than to repair it. One of these Swiss watch manufacturers (today named The Swatch Group Ltd.) started a new brand, Swatch, and called graphic designers to redesign a new annual collection.
This is often used as a case study in design schools to demonstrate the commercial potential of industrial and graphic design.
Dual Time Watches
A dual time watch is designed for travelers, allowing them to see what time it is at home when they are elsewhere.
Collectible and Jewelry Watches
Wristwatches are often treated as jewelry or as collectible works of art rather than as timepieces. This has created several different markets for wristwatches, ranging from very inexpensive but accurate watches intended for no other purpose than telling the correct time, to extremely expensive watches that serve mainly as personal adornment or as examples of high achievement in miniaturization and precision mechanical engineering, without any pretense at being accurate for telling the time. Still another market is that of “geek watches”—watches that not only tell the time, but incorporate computers, satellite navigation, complications of various orders, and many other features that may be quite removed from the basic concept of timekeeping.
Most companies that produce watches specialize in one of these markets. Companies such as Rolex or Chopard specialize in watches as jewelry or fine mechanical devices. Companies such as Casio specialize in watches as timepieces or multifunctional computers. Since watches are considered by many to be both functional and attractive, there are many types and manufacturers to choose from.
Important collectible American made watches from the early 20th Century were the best available at any price. Leading watchmakers included Elgin, Gruen, Hamilton, and Illinois. Hamilton is generally considered as having the finest early American movements, while the art deco styling of The Illinois Watch Company was unsurpassed worldwide. Early Gruen Curvex models remain very desired for how they entwined form and function, and Elgin made more watches than anyone else.
Computerized Multi-Function Watches
Many technological enhancements to wristwatches have been explored but most of them remained unnoticed. In 2005 for example, one company marketed an alarm wristwatch with an accelerometer inside that monitors the user's sleep and rings during one of his almost-awake phases.
A number of functionalities not directly related to time have also been inserted into watches. As miniaturized electronics became cheaper, watches have been developed containing calculators, video games, digital cameras, keydrives, GPS receivers and cellular phones.
In the early 1980s Seiko marketed a watch with a television in it, although at the time television receivers were too bulky to fit in a wristwatch, and the actual receiver and its power source were in a book-sized box with a cable that ran to the wristwatch. In the early 2000s, a self-contained wristwatch television receiver came on the market, with a strong enough power source to provide one hour of viewing.
These watches have not had sustained long-term sales success. As well as awkward user interfaces due to the tiny screens and buttons possible in a wearable package, and in some cases short battery life, the functionality available has not generally proven sufficiently compelling to attract buyers. Such watches have also had the reputation as ugly and thus mainly geek toys. Now with the ubiquity of the mobile phone in many countries, which have bigger screens, buttons, and batteries, interest in incorporating extra functionality in watches seems to have declined.
Several companies have however attempted to develop a computer contained in a wristwatch (see also wearable computer). As of 2005, the only programmable computer watches to have made it to market are the Seiko Ruputer, the Matsucom onHand, and the Fossil, Inc. Wrist PDA, although many digital watches come with extremely sophisticated data management software built in.
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Space Watches
Zero gravity environment and other extreme conditions encountered by astronauts in space requires the use of specially tested watches. The first Spacewatch is Poljot "Shturmanskie" manufactured at the First Moscow Watch Factory (1-MChZ).
On April 12th 1961 Yuri Gagarin wore a "Shturmanskie" (a transliteration of Штурманские which actually means "Navigator's") wristwatch during his historic first flight into space. From 1964, the watches of the First Moscow Factory have been marked by a trademark "ПОЛЕТ" and "POLJOT", which means "flight" in Russian and is a tribute to the number of many space trips their watches have accomplished.
In the late 1970s, Poljot launched a new chrono movement: the 3133. With a 23 jewel movement and manual winding (43 hours), it was a modified Russian version of the Swiss Valjoux 7734 of the early 70’s. Poljot 3133 were taken into space by cosmonauts from Russia, France, Germany and Ukraine. On the arm of V.V. Polyakov, a Poljot 3133 chronograph movement-based watch set a space record for the longest space flight in history.
During the 60s, a large range of watches were tested for durability and precision under extreme temperature changes and vibrations. The Omega Speedmaster was selected by US space agencies.
The Breitling Navitimer Cosmonaute was designed with a 24-hour dial to avoid confusion between AM and PM, which are meaningless in space. It was first worn in space by US astronaut Scott Carpenter on May 24, 1962 in the Aurora 7 mercury capsule.
More recently, some of Soviet and Russian cosmonauts have used the Fortis B-42.
Chinese taikonauts wear the Fiyta spacewatches.
TAG Heuer became the first Swiss Watchmaker in Space thanks to an Heuer Stopwatch, worn by John Glenn in 1962 when he piloted the Friendship 7 on the first manned US orbital mission.
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Mobile Phones as Pocket Watches
In the early 2000s, the carrying of mobile telephones has become ubiquitous in many affluent and even some developing countries. As these phones typically display the time on their screens when not in use, it has become common to rely on them for time-keeping, effectively making the mobile phone serve the function of a pocket watch.
Water Resistance
Watches may be crafted to become water resistant. These watches are sometimes called diving watches. The International Organization for Standardization issued a standard for water resistant watches which also prohibits the term waterproof to be used with watches, which many countries have adopted. Water resistance is achieved by the gaskets which form a watertight seal, used in conjunction with a sealant applied on the case to help keep water out. The material of the case must also be tested in order to pass as water resistant.
The watches are tested in still water, thus a watch with a 50 meter rating will be water resistant if it is stationary and under 50 meters of still water. For normal use, the ratings must then be translated from the pressure the watch can withstand to take into account the extra pressure generated by motion. Watches are classified by its degree of water resistance, which roughly translates to the following:
Water resistant - Will tolerate splashes of water or rain
50 meter - Usable while showering, bathing, dishwashing, and swimming in shallow water
100 meter - Usable while swimming, and snorkeling
150 meter - Usable during general water sports
200 meter - Usable during general water sports, including free diving
Diver's 150 meter - ISO standard for scuba diving
Some watches use bar instead of meters, which may then be multiplied by 10 to be approximately equal to the rating based on meters. Therefore, a 10 bar watch is equivalent to a 100 meter watch. Some watches are rated in atmospheres (atm), which are roughly equivalent to.
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