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Bridal Jewelry
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Watches
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(Watch-) Case: Container that protects the watch-movement from dust, damp and shocks. It also gives the watch as attractive an appearance as possible, subject to fashion and the taste of the public.
Alarm: The watch alerts you with beeps at pre-set time(s).
Analog or Analogue: A watch displaying time indications by means of hands.
Antireflective: Superficial glass treatment assuring the dispersion of reflected light. Better results are obtained if both sides are treated, but in order to avoid scratches on the upper layer, the treatment of the inner surface is preferred.
A film created by steaming the crystal to eliminate light reflection and to improve legibility. Anti reflection functions best when applied to both sides of the crystal, but because it scratches, some producers prefer to have it only on the interior of the crystal. It is mainly used on synthetic sapphire crystals.
Aperture: Small opening. The dials of some watches (in French montres à guichet) have apertures in which certain indications are given (e.g. the date, the hour, etc).
Appliqué: Appliqué or applied chapters are numerals or symbols cut out of a sheet metal and stuck or riveted to a dial.
Assembling: Process of fitting together the components of a movement. This was formerly done entirely by hand, but the operations have now been largely automated. Nevertheless, the human element is still primordial, especially for inspection and testing.
Assortment: French term for the parts used for making an escapement.
Automatic: A watch whose mechanical movement is wound automatically. A rotor makes short oscillations due to the movements of the wrist. Through a series of gears, oscillations transmit motion to the barrel, thus winding the mainspring progressively.
Automatic Winding: A rotating weight, set into motion by moving the wrist, winds the going barrel via the gear train of a mechanical watch movement. Automatic winding was invented during the pocket watch era in 1770 by Abraham-louis Perrelet, who created a watch with a weight swinging to and fro (when carried in a vest pocket, a pocket watch usually makes vertical movements). The first automatic-winding wristwatches, invented by John Harwood in the 1920s, utilized so-called hammer winding, whereby a weight swung in an arc between two banking pins. The breakthrough automatic winding movement via rotor began with the ball bearing Eterna-Matic in the late 1940s, and the workings of such a watch haven't changed fundamentally since. Today we speak of unidirectional winding and bi-directionally winding rotors, depending on the type of gear train used.
Balance: Moving part, usually circular, oscillating about its axis of rotation. The hairspring coupled to it makes it swing to and fro, dividing time into exactly equal parts. Each of the to-and-fro movements of the balance ("tick-tack") is called an "oscillation". One oscillation is composed of two vibrations.
Barrel: Thin cylindrical box containing the mainspring of a watch. The toothed rim of the barrel drives the train.
Battery Reserve Indicator (or End of Battery Indicator): Some battery-operated watches have a feature that indicates when the battery is approaching the end of its life. This is often indicated by the second hand moving in two second intervals instead of each second.
Bezel: The ring that surrounds the watch dial (or face). The bezel is usually made of gold, gold plate or stainless steel.
Bi-Directional Rotating Bezel: A bezel that can be rotated either clockwise or counterclockwise. These are used for mathematical calculations such as average speed or distance (see "slide rule") or for keeping track of elapsed time(see "elapsed time rotating bezel").
Bridge: Complementary part fixed to the main plate to form the frame of a watch movement. The other parts are mounted inside the frame.
Built-In Illumination: Lighting on a watch dial that allows the wearer to read the time in the dark.
Cabachon: Any kind of precious stone, such as sapphire, ruby or emerald, uncut and only polished, generally of a half-spherical shape, mainly used as an ornament of the winding crown or certain elements of the case.
Calendar: A feature that shows the date, and often the day of the week. There are several types of calendar watches. Most calendar watches show the information digitally through an aperture on the watch face. Some chronograph watches show the information on sub-dials on the watch face.
Carriage, Tourbillon: Rotating frame of a tourbillon device, carrying the balance and escapement. This structural element is essential for a perfect balance of the whole system and its stability, in spite of its reduced weight. As today's tourbillon carriages make a rotation per minute, errors of rate in the vertical position are eliminated. Because of the wide spread use of transparent dials, carriages became elements of aesthetic attractiveness.
Chronograph: A watch that includes a built-in stopwatch function, i.e. a timer that can be started and stopped to time an event. There are many variations of the chronograph.
From the Greek chronos (time) and graphein (to write). Originally a chronograph literally wrote, inscribing the time elapsed on a piece of paper with the help of a pencil attached to a type of hand. Today this term is used for watches that show not only the time of day, but also certain time intervals via independent hands that may be started or stopped at will. So-called stopwatches differ from chronographs because they do not show the time of day. Not be mistaken for a chronometer.
Chronometer: A high-precision watch. According to the Swiss law, a manufacture may put the word "chronometer" on a model only after each individual piece has passed a series of tests and obtained a running bulletin and a chronometer certificate by an acknowledged Swiss control authority, such as the COSC, which is literally, the "measurer of time." As the term is used today, a chronometer denotes an especially accurate watch (one with a deviation of no more than five seconds a day for mechanical movements). Chronometers are usually supplied with an official certificate from an independent office such as the C.O.S.C.
Cloisonné: A kind of enamel work? mainly used for the decoration of dials?in which the outlines of the drawing are formed by thin metal wires. The colored enamel fills the hollows formed in this way. After oven firing, the surface is smoothed until the gold threads appear again.
Complication: Additional function with respect to the manual-winding basic movement for the display of hours, minutes and seconds. Today, certain features, such as automatic winding or date, are taken for granted, although they should be defined as complications. The main complications are moonphase, power reserve, GMT, and full calendar. Further functions are performed by the so-called great complications, such as split-second chronograph, perpetual calendar, tourbilon device, and minute repeater.
COSC: Abbreviation of "ContrOle Officiel Suisse des Chronomètres," the most important Swiss institution responsible for the functioning and precision tests of movements of chronometers. Tests are performed on each individual watch at different temperatures and in different positions before a functioning bulletin and a chronometer certificate are issued, for which a maximum gap of -4/+4 seconds per day is tolerated.
Crown: Usually positioned on the case middle and allows winding, hand setting and often date or GMT hand setting. As it is linked to the movement through the winding stem passing through a hole in the case. For waterproofing purposes, simple gaskets are used in water-resistant watches, while diving watches adopt screwing systems (screw-down crowns).
Crystal: The transparent cover on a watch face made of glass crystal, synthetic sapphire or plastic. Better watches often have a sapphire crystal which is highly resistant to scratching or shattering.
Depth Alarm: An alarm on a divers' watch that sounds when the wearer exceeds a pre-set depth.
Depth Sensor/Depth Meter: A device on a divers' watch that determines the wearer's depth by measuring water pressure. It shows the depth either by analog hands and a scale on the watch face or through a digital display.
Dial: The watch face (plate of metal or other material). Dials vary very much in shape, decoration, material, etc. The indications are given by means of numerals, divisions or symbols of various types. Face of a watch, on which time and further functions are displayed by markers, hands, discs or through windows. Normally it is made of a brass?sometimes silver or gold.
Digital Watch: A watch that shows the time through digits rather than through a dial and hands (analog) display.
Direct-Drive: Refers to a seconds-hand that moves forwards in little jerks.
Display: Indication of time or other data, either by means of hands moving over a dial (analogue display) or by means of numerals appearing in one or more windows (digital or numerical display); these numerals may be completed by alphabetical indications (alphanumerical display) or by signs of any other kind. Example 12.05 MO 12.3 = 12 hours, 5 minutes, Monday 12th March. Such displays can be obtained by mechanicalor electronic means.
Diving Watch: A watch that is water resistant to 200M. Has a one way rotating bezel and a screw-on crown and back. Has a metal or rubber strap (not leather). Has a sapphire crystal and possibly, a wet-suit extension.
Elapsed Time Rotating Bezel: A graduated rotating bezel (see "rotating bezel") used to keep track of elapsed time. The bezel can be turned so the wearer can align the zero on the bezel with the watch's seconds or minutes hand. After a period of time passes, you can read the elapsed time off the bezel. This saves you having to perform the subtraction that would be necessary if you used the watch's regular dial.
Equinox: The time when day and night are of equal length, when the sun is on the plane of the equator. Such times occur twice in a year the vernal equinox on March 2lst-22nd and the autumnal equinox on September 22nd-23rd.
Escapement: Device in a mechanical movement that controls the rotation of the wheels and thus the motion of the hands. Set of parts (escape wheel, lever, roller) which converts the rotary motion of the train into to-and-fro motion (the balance).
Factory (Works): In the Swiss watch industry, the term manufacture is used of a factory in which watches are manufactured almost completely, as distinct from an "atelier de terminage", which is concerned only with assembling, timing, fitting the hands and casing.
Flyback Hand: A seconds hand on a chronograph that can be used to time laps or to determine finishing times for several competitors in a race. Start the chronograph, putting both the flyback hand and the regular chronograph seconds hand in motion. To record a lap time or finishing time, stop the flyback hand. After recording the time, push a button and the hand will "fly back" to catch up with the constantly moving elapsed-time hand. Repeat the process to record as many lap times or finishing times as needed. In chronographs with numerical display, a "function" having the same effect.
Fold-Over-Clasp: Hinged and jointed element, normally of the same material as the one used for the case. It allows easy fastening of the bracelet on the wrist. Often provided with a snap-in locking device, sometimes with an additional clip or push piece.
Gear Train: The system of gears which transmits power from the mainspring to the escapement.
Glass (Crystal): Thin plate of glass or transparent synthetic material, for protecting the dials of watches, clocks, etc.
GMT: Abbreviation for Greenwich Mean Time. As a feature of watches, it means that two or more time zones are displayed. In this case, the second time may be read from a hand making a full rotation in a 24-hour ring (thereby also indicating whether it is am. or p.m. in that zone).
Gold Plated: A layer of gold electroplated to a base metal.
Guilloché: Decoration of dials, rotors or case parts consisting of patterns, made by hand or engine-turned. By the thin pattern of the resulting engravings?consisting of crossing or interlaced lines?it is possible to realize even complex drawings. Dials and rotors decorated in this way are generally in gold or in solid silver.
Surface decoration, normally on the dial, whereby a grooving tool with a sharp tip is used to cut an even pattern onto a level surface. The exact adjustment of the tool for each new path is controlled by a device similar to a pantograph, and the movement of the tool can be controlled either manually or mechanically. Real guillochis (the correct term used by a master of guilloche) are very intricate and expensive to produce, which is why most of the dials decorated in this fashion are produced by stamping machines.
Hand: Indicator for the analogue visualization in hours, minutes and seconds as well as other functions, Normally made of brass (rhodium-plated, gilded or treated otherwise), but also steel or gold. Hands are available in different shapes and take part in the aesthetic result of the whole watch.
Integrated Bracelet: A watch bracelet that is incorporated into the design of the case.
Jewel: Precious stone used in movements as a bearing Generally speaking, pivots of wheels in movements turn inside synthetic jewels (mostly rubies) lubricated with a drop of oil. The jewel's hardness reduces wear to a minimum even over long periods of time (50 to 100 years). The quality of watches is determined mainly by the shape and finishing of jewels rather than by their number (the most refined jewels have rounded holes and walls to greatly reduce the contact between pivotand stone).
Kinetic: Refers to the Seiko line of Kinetic watches. This innovative technology has a quartz movement that does not use a battery. Movement of your wrist charges a very efficient capacitor which powers the quartz movement. Once the capacitor is fully charged, mens models will store energy for 7-14 days without being worn. Ladies models store energy for 3-7 days. Of course, if the watch is worn every day the capacitor is continually recharged. The watch alerts you to a low capacitor charge when the seconds hand starts to move in two second intervals.
Lap Timer: A chronograph function that lets the wearer time segments of a race. At the end of a lap, he stops the timer, which then returns to zero to begin timing the next lap.
Liquid-Crystal Display (LCD): A digital watch display that shows the time electronically by means of a liquid held in a thin layer between two transparent plates. All LCD watches have quartz movements.
Lugs: Projections on a watch face to which the watch band or bracelet is attached.
Main plate: Base plate on which all the other parts of a watch movement are mounted.
Mainspring: The driving spring of a watch or clock, contained in the barrel.
Mainspring: This and the barrel make up the driving element of a movement. It stores and transmits the power force needed for its functioning.
Manual: A mechanical movement in which winding is performed by hand. The motion transmitted from the user's fingers to the crown is forwarded to the movement through the winding stem, from this to the barrel through a series of gears and finally to the mainspring
Marine Chronometer: Highly accurate mechanical or electronic timekeeper enclosed in a box (hence the term box chronometer), used for determining the longitude on board ship. Marine chronometers with mechanical movements are mounted on gimbals so that they remain in the horizontal position is necessary for their precision.
Markers: Elements printed or applied on the dial, sometimes they are luminescent, used as reference points for the hands to indicate hours and fifteen- or five-minute intervals.
Measurement Conversion: A feature, usually consisting of a graduated scale on the watch's bezel, that lets the wearer translate one type of measurement into another-miles into kilometers, for instance, or pounds into kilograms.
Mechanical movement: A movement powered by a mainspring, working in conjunction with a balance wheel. Most watches today have electronically controlled quartz movements and are powered by a battery. However, mechanical watches are currently enjoying a resurgence in popularity.
Minute Repeater: A striking mechanism with hammers and gongs for acoustically signalling the hours, quarter hours, and minutes elapsed since noon or midnight. The wearer pushes a slide, which winds the spring. Normally a repeater uses two different gongs to signal hours (low tone), quarter hours (high and low tones in succession), and minutes (high tone). Some watches have three gongs, called a carillon.
Moonphase: A function available in many watches, usually combined with calendar-related features ~ The moonphase disc advances one tooth every 24 hours. Normally, this wheel has 59 teeth and assures an almost perfect synchronization with the lunation period, i.e. 29.53 days (in fact, the disc shows the moonphases twice during a single revolution). However, the difference of 0.03 PAWL days, i.e. 44 minutes each month, implies the need for a manual adjustment every two and a half years to recover one day lost with respect to the real state of moonphase. In some rare case, the transmission ratio between the gears controlling the moonphase are calculated with extreme accuracy so as to require manual correction only once in 100 years.
Movement: The entire mechanism of a watch. Movements are divided into two great families quartz and mechanical; the latter are available with manual or automatic winding devices.
Perpetual Calendar: The calendar module for this watch type automatically makes allowances for the different lengths of each month as well as leap years. A perpetual calendar also usually shows the date, month, and four-year cycle, and may show the day of the week and moon phase as well.
Plated: Said of a metal treated by a galvanizing procedure in order to apply a slight layer of gold or another precious metal (silver, chromium, rhodium or palladium) on a brass or steel base.
Power Reserve: Duration (in hours) of the residual functioning autonomy of a movement after it has reached the winding peak. The duration value is displayed by an instantaneous indicator analog (hand on a sector) or digital (through a window). The related mechanism is made up of a series of gears linking the winding barrel and hand. Recently, specific modules were introduced which may be combined with the most popular movements.
Precision: Accuracy rate of a watch, a term difficult to define exactly. Usually, a precision watch is a chronometer whose accuracy-standard is certified by an official watch-rating bureau, and a high-precision watch is a chronometer certified by an observatory.
Pusher, Push-Piece or Push Button: Mechanical element mounted on a case for the control of specific functions. Generally, pushers are used in chronographs, but also with other functions.
PVD: Abbreviation of Physical Vapor Deposition, a plating process consisting of the physical transfer of substance by bombardment of electrons.
Quartz: Timekeeping's technical revolution found its way to the world's wrists in the late 1960s. This was a
principally Swiss invention - the first working quartz wristwatches were manufactured by Girard-Perregaux
and Piaget as the result of an early joint venture within the Swiss watch industry, but the Japanese (primarily Seiko)
came to dominate the market with new technology. The quartz movement uses the famously stable vibration frequency of a
quartz crystal subjected to electronic tension (usually 32,868 Hz) as its norm. The fact that a quartz-controlled
second hand jumps to the tact of each second is a concession to the use of outside energy.
The heart of a quartz watch is a tiny sliver of quartz.
The synthetically produced quartz is cut by the manufacturer with a diamond saw and shipped to the
watchmaker to use. Most commonly, the quartz is placed
into a sort of capsule, with wires attached to both ends so that the capsule can be
soldered< or otherwise connected to a circuit board.
The oscillation rate of perhaps 100,000 vibrations/second is reduced to 1 or 60 or some other more manageable number of
oscillations. The new pattern of oscillation is then sent to another microchip that functions as a
"counter-decoder-driver." This chip will actually count the oscillations that it receives. If there are sixty
oscillations per second, the chip will change the reading on an LED every second. After 3,600 oscillations (60 x 60),
the counter will instruct the LED to change the reading for minutes. And, after 60 x 60 x 60 oscillations (216,000), the
counter will change the hour reading.
The entire set of crystal and microchips is set onto a circuit board. The board
incorporates a space to hold the battery that supplies electricity to the quartz crystal and supplies the power for the LED
display.
Rotating Bezel: A bezel (the ring surrounding the watch face) that can be turned. Different types of rotating bezels perform different timekeeping and mathematical functions.
Rotor: The part of an automatic (or self-winding) mechanical watch that winds the movement's mainspring. It is a flat piece of metal, usually shaped like a semicircle, that swivels on a pivot with the motion of the wearer's arm.
Sapphire Crystal: A crystal made of synthetic sapphire, a transparent, shatter-resistant, scratch-resistant substance.
Screw-Lock Crown: A crown that can be screwed into the case to make the watch watertight.
Second: Basic unit of time (abbr. s or sec), corresponding to one 86,000th part of the mean solar day, i.e. the duration of rotation, about its own axis, of an ideal Earth describing a circle round the Sun in one year, at a constant speed and in the plane of the Equator. After the Second World War, atomic clocks became so accurate that they could demonstrate the infinitesimal irregularities (a few hundreths of a second per year) of the Earth's rotation about its own axis. It was then decided to redefine the reference standard; this was done by the 13th General Conference on Weights and Measures in 1967, in the following terms "The second is the duration of 9,192,631,770 periods of the radiation corresponding to the transition between the two hyperfine levels of the fundamental state of the atom of caesium 133". Conventionally, the second is subdivised into tenths, hundredths, thousendths (milliseconds), millionths (microseconds), thousand-millionths (nanoseconds) and billionths (picoseconds).
Second Time-Zone Indicator: An additional dial that can be set to the time in another time zone. It lets the wearer keep track of local time and the time in another country simultaneously.
Shock Resistance: As defined by U.S. government regulation, a watch's ability to withstand an impact equal to that of being dropped onto a wood floor from a height of 3 feet.
Shockproof or Shock-Resistent: Watches provided with shock-absorber systems (e.g. Incabloc) help prevent damage from shocks to the balance pivots. Thanks to a retaining spring system, it assures an elastic play of both jewels, thus absorbing the movements of the balance-staff pivots when the watch receives strong shocks. The return to the previous position is due to the return effect of the spring. If such a system is lacking, the shock forces exert an impact on the balance-staff pivots, often causing bending or even breakage.
Skeleton: Skeleton watch in which the case and various parts of the movement are of transparent material, enabling the main parts of the watch to be seen.
Skeleton, Skeletonized: Watches whose bridges and pillar-plates are cut out in a decorative manner, thus revealing all the parts of the movement.
Slide Rule: A device, consisting of logarithmic or other scales on the outer edge of the watch face, that can be used to do mathematical calculations. One of the scales is marked on a rotating bezel, which can be slid against the stationary scale to make the calculations. Some watches have slide rules that allow specific calculations, such as for fuel consumption by an airplane or fuel weight.
Solar Powered: A watch that uses solar energy (from any light source) to power the quartz movement.
Stepping Motor: The part of a quartz movement that moves the gear train, which in turn moves the watch's hands.
Stopwatch: A watch with a seconds hand that measures intervals of time. When a stopwatch is incorporated into a standard watch, both the stopwatch function and the timepiece are referred to as a chronograph.
Sub-Dial: A small dial on a watch face used for any of several purposes, such as keeping track of elapsed minutes or hours on a chronograph or indicating the date.
Tachometer: (aka. "Tachymeter") A feature found on some chronograph watches, measures the speed at which the wearer has traveled over a measured distance. In watchmaking, a timer or chronograph with a graduated dial on which speed can be read off in kilometres per hour or some other unit (see "timer").
Tank Watch: A rectangular watch designed by Louis Cartier. The bars along the sides of the watch were inspired by the tracks of tanks used in World War 1.
Telemeter: A telemeter determines the distance of an object from the observer by measuring how long it takes sound to travel that distance. Like a tachometer (see "tachometer"), it consists of a stopwatch, or chronograph, and a special scale, usually on the outermost edge of the watch face.
Timer: Instrument used for registering intervals of time (durations, brief times), without any indication of the time of day.
Titanium: A metal that is used for some watch cases and bracelets. Titanium is much stronger and lighter than stainless steel. Titanium is also hypo-allergenic.
Tonneau Watch: A watch shaped like a barrel, with two convex sides.
Tourbillon: Tourbillon (french, "whirlwind" or "vortex") is not technically a horological complication, but is frequently included in listings of complications. A tourbillon 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 of a chronometer. This is accomplished by mounting the escapement in a rotating frame, so that the effect of gravity cancels out when the escapement is rotated 180°. The effects of gravity were particularly problematic when pocketwatches were carried in the same pocketed position for most of the day. In a tourbillon, the entire escapement assembly rotates, including the balance wheel, escapement wheel, and pallet fork. The rate of rotation varies per design but has generally become standardized at one rotation per minute.
Unidirectional Rotating Bezel: An elapsed time rotating bezel (see "elapsed time rotating bezel"), often found on divers' watches, that moves only in a counterclockwise direction. It is designed to prevent a diver who has unwittingly knocked the bezel off its original position from overestimating his remaining air supply. Because the bezel moves in only one direction, the diver can err only on the side of safety when timing his dive. Many divers' watches are ratcheted, so that they lock into place for greater safety.
Vibration: Movement of a pendulum or other oscillating element, limited by two consecutive extreme positions. The balance of a mechanical watch generally makes five or six vibrations per second (i.e. 18,000 or 21,600 per hour), but that of a high-frequency watch may make seven, eight or even ten vibrations per second (i.e. 25,200, 28,800 or 36, 000 per hour).
Water Resistant: The ability to withstand splashes of water. Terms such as "water resistant to 50 meters" or "water resistant to 200 meters" indicate that the watch can be worn underwater to various depths.
Winding Stem: The button on the right side of the watch case used to wind the mainspring. Also called a "crown."
World Time Dial: A dial, usually on the outer edge of the watch face, that tells the time in up to 24 time zones around the world. The time zones are represented by the names of cities printed on the bezel or dial. The wearer reads the hour in a particular time zone by looking at the scale next to the city that the hour hand is pointing to. The minutes are read as normal. Watches with this feature are called "world timers."
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