Mechanical watches

Watches, watches...

These days wearing a mechanical watch seems to be more of a lifestyle choice than a necessity – clocks are everywhere – the little clock sitting at the right-lower[1] corner of the screen is the ubiquitous example. To make the watches even more redundant – a clock which synchronizes to a network clock is almost always available at your pocket – your smartphone.

So yes – your watch is likely to be a mere ornamental instrument.

Why do people wear watches then?

In some professions, doctors included – recording the time of an incident is of extreme importance and good documentation can often spare one from a legal suit that may cost millions of dollars. A handy reference at your left hand, be it 5 minutes late or 4 minutes ahead, is still better than having to take the phone out from the pocket (often with a dirty hand).

In other professions, the watch is a symbol of wealth and sometimes a fashion statement. Granted, some watches are very good looking – just look at the latest Omega watches – they are definitely gorgeous (look at the Ladymatic line!) However, in my humble opinion, the beauty of old-school Swiss watches e.g. Patek Philippe and Vacheron Constantin are not really that easily appreciated, especially for those who do not have a great interest in it... Do the watches really look THAT good with the black leather strips? Wearing it is probably more for the brand than for the look (and movement) of the watch.

It is the mechanism that matters

Many of us men have an innate love to great engineering – and mechanical watch is exactly one of those things that belong to the 'wonderfully complex, yet incredibly small' category. If you own one of those watches that had a 'open-heart' configuration, or one of those with a transparent back – looking at the movement (the term for the mechanism of the watch) is quite an enjoyable thing.

In the beginning, most watches are hand-wound and the power derives from the tension build upon the mainspring. The mainspring provides the force necessary to drive the watch. The force is then used to drive a series of gears which moves the balance wheel – which is made to rotate in a simple harmonic motion – it oscillates to and fro at a constant rate.

The periodic movement of the balance wheel is then converted into stepwise, single-direction, rotatory movement by a structure called the escapement. This stepwise, single-direction, rotatory movement then drives a series of gears which eventually tells the time.

Below are a few video that is quite interesting and a good introduction to the working of mechanical movements:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=508-rmdY4jQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MUL65-vZHY

What do I wear?

I wear a rather uninteresting mechanical watch with a power reserve indicator. The mechanical watch allows me to know the time easily, the mechanical nature pleases me because I know it is harvesting the otherwise wasted energy from the movement of my hand, and the power reserve indicator soothes my soul because it allows me to know the mechanical energy remaining in the mainspring (and thus I can have a good sleep without winding all these watches before I sleep in the fear of losing time)

[1] For those mac users, right-upper corner.