Congratulations on purchasing your first mechanical timepiece. That means you’re the proud owner of more than simply a clock: that small disc on your wrist symbolizes the synthesis of art and science, a tribute to man’s brilliance. Whether you wear it only on special occasions or for all of life’s important events, and whether you spent a week’s income or a year’s salary on it, it should last you a long time and be trouble-free. Please make a note of it, and then forget about it. Could you put it on and get going? These are the advantages of wearing a mechanical watch.
How to Create a Hole in a Watch Strap
But before you start reaping the rewards, there are a few things to keep in mind that will help keep your watch functioning smoothly until you hand it down to your children. Please spend some time studying them thoroughly. It’s due to your timepiece.
The Bees vs. the Birds
Almost every mechanical watch has had the same fundamental construction for the past three centuries, demonstrating what an intelligent and efficient machine is. Unlike a quartz watch, a mechanical timepiece does not rely on a battery for power. Instead, the unwinding of a tightly coiled flat spring provides the force that propels the hands across the dial and any extra complexities like a date function, moon phase, or chronograph.
1. The mechanical watch is powered by a tightly coiled flat spring.
2. If left unchecked, this spring would uncoil almost rapidly. Instead, it is controlled by a system of toothed gears and an escapement assembly.
3. A hairspring, the watch’s “heart,” keeps the escapement in control. A mechanical watch’s accuracy comes from its beating at a constant pace of somewhere between 18,000 and 36,000 times per hour.
4. Synthetic “jeweled” bearings are hung to reduce friction and protect against vibration and shock.
If left uncontrolled, this mainspring would unravel and lose all of its energy in seconds. As a result, the mainspring is housed in a meshed barrel with a precisely proportioned geartrain of toothed wheels that ends in the escapement. The escapement is made up of a revolution captured and released by a pivoting lever regularly. The hairspring, a delicate spiral that controls the turning of the lever, is well named. This so-called “lever escapement” controls the mainspring’s energy release, feeding it back through the geartrain and moving the watch’s hands to count seconds, minutes, and hours.
The hairspring is the watch’s beating heart; if you’ve ever seen a mechanical watch movement in action, you’ll understand why, as the hairspring “beats” back and forth at a constant rate of anywhere from 18,000 to 36,000 times per hour. The watch’s accuracy is mostly determined by the hairspring’s tension and its resistance to temperature fluctuations and magnetism. The majority of current hairsprings are built of a metallic alloy that adapts for temperature variations, with some made of silicon that is magnetism resistant.
It’s a marvel these gadgets are as exact as they are with all of these meshing gears and tiny springs. On the other hand, a well-adjusted chronometer-grade movement can maintain time with 99.999 percent accuracy. On the other hand, friction and external shocks are archenemies of the mechanical watch mechanism. Regular lubrication and smooth “jeweled” bearings help to reduce friction. Rubies are the red, gleaming discs seen in watch bridges, which were once genuine but are now mostly synthetic. The gear wheels’ pivots ride in the middle of these rubies, which have been polished to give practically frictionless surfaces.
If those tiny pivots had no wiggle space, a quick shock from your arm stirring eggs might shear one-off, killing the movement. As a result, the diamonds are suspended in a floating frame that absorbs vibrations and shocks, preventing the pivots from dying prematurely.
All of a Sudden
One of the most appealing aspects of a mechanical watch is that it functions only when the owner interacts with it. If you don’t maintain the coiled mainspring wrapped, it will only produce power for a day or two (or maybe longer). Part of the attractiveness of a hand-wound watch is the purest version of the mechanical clock. As the name implies, the mainspring is wound by spinning the watch’s crown a few hundred times. While incorporating a watch is a straightforward procedure, there are a few things to keep in mind. To begin, remove the watch from your wrist and wind it. While it’s tempting to twirl the crown while at work, the angle is unnatural and puts lateral stress on the fragile winding stem. Second, avoid overwinding your timepiece. When you can’t turn the crown any longer, you know it’s wound. This isn’t the same as filling up your petrol tank, so don’t attempt to overdo it. When you encounter resistance, stop winding. Once a day, try to wound your watch. When the mainspring is above half tension, a watch retains the best time. Because the average watch has a two-day power reserve, winding it up before putting it on every morning is an excellent habit to develop.