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A watch is a timepiece or portable clock that
displays the time and sometimes the day, date, month and year. In
past centuries, these often took the form of pocket watches, which
today are seldom carried or worn. In modern usage, watch is usually
a contraction of wristwatch, a name for the most popular style of
timekeeping device worn on the wrist.
Because most watches lack a striking mechanism, such as a bell or
gong, to announce the passage of time, they are properly called
timepieces rather than clocks.
Today, the most common type of watch is the wristwatch, worn on the
wrist and fastened with a watchband made of leather, nylon or other
plastics (then called strap), metal links (called bracelet) or even
ceramic. Before the inexpensive miniaturization that became possible
in the 20th century, most watches were pocket watches, which had
covers and were carried separately, often in a pocket and attached
to a watch chain or fob. The most accurate watches have
radio-controlled movements that are miniaturized, portable versions
of radio clocks.
In the 21st century, technological advances in metallurgy, composite
materials development and physical vapor deposition greatly
influence watch design and manufacturing. Solid stainless steel,
titanium, tungsten carbide, carbon fiber, high-tech ceramic and ion
plating processes dominate a considerable market share of today's
modern watch-making industry. Sapphire crystals are often
incorporated to complement and enhance the durability of a quality
watch.
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Most inexpensive and medium-priced watches used mainly for
timekeeping are electronic watches with quartz movements. Expensive,
collectible watches valued more for their workmanship and aesthetic
appeal than for simple timekeeping often have purely mechanical
movements and are powered by springs, even though mechanical
movements are less accurate than inexpensive quartz movements.
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Pocket timepieces
Main article: Pocket watch
In the 15th century, navigation and mapping increased the desire for
portability in timekeeping. The latitude could be measured by
looking at the stars, but the only way a ship could measure its
longitude was by comparing the midday (high noon) time of the local
longitude to that of a European meridian (usually Paris or
Greenwich)—a time kept on a shipboard clock. However, the process
was notoriously unreliable until the introduction of John Harrison's
marine chronometer. For that reason, most maps from the 15th century
through the 19th century have precise latitudes but distorted
longitudes.
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The first reasonably accurate mechanical clocks measured time with
simple weighted pendulums, which are unworkable when irregular
movement of the fulcrum occur whether at sea or in watches. The
invention of a spring mechanism was crucial for portable clocks. In
Tudor England, the development of "pocket-clockes" was enabled by
the development of reliable springs and escapement mechanisms, which
allowed clockmakers to compress a timekeeping device into a small,
portable compartment.
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