Watches

The Japan Clock and Watch Association estimates that 1.25 billion watches were produced worldwide in 2005. Retail sales totaled about $30 billion. Switzerland exported 25 million watches with a wholesale value of about $9 billion.

A recent jewelry industry trade journal survey found that more than 90 percent of independent US jewelers sell watches. About 3 million watches are sold in the US, with retail sales totaling about $1.85 billion.

There are two main types of watches in the market today: mechanical watches and quartz watches. The basic difference between them is their power source. A mechanical watch is powered by manual or automatic winding. A quartz watch is powered by a battery.

For well over 400 years, mechanical watches were the only type on the market. Today, however, they represent about 1 percent of the watches produced every year. Today quartz watches dominate the market.

About 80 percent of watches produced today are analog quartz watches, with the passage of time displayed in hours, minutes, and sometimes seconds by pointed “hands.” Almost all the rest are digital quartz models, with time displayed as numbers, usually by a liquid crystal display (LCD).

The trade divides the watch market into segments, usually by retail dollar value.

Mass market watches are generally priced under $100. These are high-volume, low-price quartz watches made by companies like Timex, Swatch, Fossil, and Casio.

The middle market for watches includes prices between $100 and $700. This level consists of widely distributed lines by Japanese and Swiss quartz watch producers like Seiko, Citizen, Bulova, and Tissot.

The luxury market includes watches priced from $700, with prices extending beyond $6,000 at the highest levels. Categories consist of mechanical and quartz watches, and they’re usually produced in lower quantities by Swiss watchmakers. This market segment includes brands like Raymond Weil, Tag Heuer, and Rolex.

Bezel—The stationary or rotating ring that surrounds the watch dial and holds the crystal in place.

Case—Container that protects the watch movement from dust, dampness, and shocks. It also might be used to provide the watch with its own unique appearance.

Crown—The small knob on the outside of the watch case that’s used to set the time and date and other functions. On a manually wound mechanical watch, the crown and its extensions also wind the mainspring.

Crystal—The transparent cover on a watch dial. It can be made of acrylic plastic, glass, or laboratory-grown sapphire. A lab-grown sapphire crystal is highly resistant to scratching or shattering.

The inner mechanism of a watch—the motor that moves the watch’s hands or activates its LCD to display the time—is called a movement. Watches, especially those with mechanical movements, are complex masterpieces of miniaturization.

The parts of a mechanical watch include a mainspring that provides the power; the gears that turn the second, minute, and hour hands; and a regulating system that steadies the watch’s speed as the mainspring unwinds.

To power the watch, the wearer manually or automatically winds the mainspring. As the spring unwinds, it drives the gears and other parts that keep time and turn the hands. Today most mechanical watches are wound by an automated mechanism that oscillates as the wearer moves.

As gears turn, they produce friction. If that friction goes unchecked, it will eventually undermine the proper operation of the movement. To reduce friction, increase accuracy, and prolong a watch’s life, watchmakers install hard jewels, such as corundum, that act as bearings.

The number of jewels varies, but a “17-jewel movement” is fairly standard. It means the watch movement contains 17 friction-reducing jewels. Since the early 1900s virtually all jewels used in watches have been lab-grown.

A mechanical watch also needs a regulating system to run steadily and keep accurate time. The regulating system steadies the unwinding of the mainspring. Without it, the gears would turn very fast when the mainspring is tightly wound and slow down as the spring uncoils. A watch’s regulating system consists of a double-ended escape wheel, an escapement lever, a balance spring, and a balance wheel.

As the mainspring unwinds, it powers an interaction between the escape wheel and the escapement lever. The wheel pushes one end of the lever, causing the other end to turn the balance wheel in one direction. The balance spring then turns the balance wheel back in the other direction.

When the balance wheel moves the escapement lever, the escape wheel advances one notch. The escapement lever moves back and forth four to five times a second, engaging the teeth of the escape wheel. The interaction of the escapement lever and the escape wheel’s teeth makes a mechanical watch tick.

Working together, the balance wheel and escapement lever help perform the timekeeping function of the watch. Their motion is transmitted to the hands, which indicate the time of day. A watch without a second hand might have a less complex gearing system, while those with a calendar display might be much more complex.

An automatic or self-winding mechanical watch has a winding mechanism that works by gravity and the wearer’s motion. The two forces wind the watch by keeping a weight rocking back and forth. In some models, the weight rotates 360˚. A limiting mechanism prevents overwinding. Automatic winding devices are available to keep a self-winding watch wound when it’s not being worn.

Most quartz movements are powered by electricity from a tiny, disk-shaped battery called a button or cell battery. Some might be powered by electrical energy converted from solar power. Whatever its source, the electric current causes a lab-grown crystal to vibrate at a constant high frequency: 32,768 times per second. This consistent vibration makes a quartz watch highly accurate.

The vibrating electrical impulses pass through a motor that converts electrical energy to mechanical energy. The mechanical energy drives the gears and other parts that turn the hands. In a digital quartz watch, the electrical impulses power a liquid crystal display that indicates the time of day.

Some watches do more than just tell time. A chronograph, for example, has a stopwatch function. Wearers can measure elapsed time by using push buttons on the case.

Don’t confuse a chronograph with a chronometer. Literally any watch is a chronometer because it measures time. But the trade applies the word “chronometer” to Swiss-made watches that permanently display seconds and pass seven stringent accuracy tests certified by Contrôle Officiel Suisse des Chronomètres (COSC), a standards and testing organization in Switzerland.

Some specialty timepieces add various functions to watches or chronographs. Some might provide a compass, while others give altitude, temperature, barometer, and global positioning information. For athletes and fitness enthusiasts, there are chronographs that provide heart rate data. Some have tachometers that measure the wearer’s rate of speed. There’s even a chronograph that works in conjunction with a personal computer to bring the features of a personal digital assistant (PDA) to the owner’s wrist.

Some calendar watches have the added feature of a perpetual calendar, which automatically adjusts for differences in the number of days in each month and for leap years.

Shock resistance is also a feature found in many modern watches. In the US, it means that the watch was tested for its ability to withstand an impact equal to being dropped onto a wooden floor from a height of 3 feet.

The term “waterproof” is no longer properly used to describe watches. The only instruments it might apply to are divers’ watches and then only under special testing circumstances. Watches designed to withstand different degrees of wetness or immersion are designated water-resistant. Some watches marked “water-resistant” can withstand splashes of water or rain but can’t be immersed without leaking.

Many watches made to be worn while swimming or diving are marked “water-resistant to X meters or feet,” meaning the watch can be worn underwater to the designated depth without leaking. The tests that yield these designations, however, don’t duplicate actual depth, pressure, and movement conditions, and they shouldn’t be taken literally.

The variety of watches and chronographs is so broad and the price range so wide that selling them involves, at least in part, matching a customer’s needs, desires, and budget to a particular timepiece. Selling watches is similar to selling jewelry in that respect. It’s also similar in another way: To succeed as a sales associate, you have to know the product.

Watches range from very simple, with only minute and hour hands, to very complex. A chronograph with several added features can be challenging for a first-time wearer. As a sales associate, you have to know each watch’s features, how they work, and how to demonstrate them to a customer. You have to instill confidence to make sales. Showing sincere interest and passion isn’t only a plus—it’s a necessity.

Watchmakers periodically update old models and introduce new ones. Most customers respond well to these new ideas. Sales associates must stay up to date so they can relate new developments to customers.

You can learn about new styles and features from watch company sales representatives, from promotional and training materials, and from websites. Many companies provide in-store training for sales personnel. Watchmakers’ representatives commonly make yearly visits to educate and update retail sales associates.

For many consumers, watches aren’t just for telling time. They can be jewelry, status symbols, or collectible works of art, engineering, or miniaturization. A woman wearing an elegant evening gown and a delicate, diamond-studded wristwatch is probably more interested in making a fashion statement than knowing what time it is. For many men, a high-end watch is the only jewelry they wear. And that expensive watch is often as much a status symbol as a timepiece.

Especially since watchmaking is a more than 500-year-old craft, there is broad and avid interest in collecting watches. A visit to a few websites can reveal the extent and variety of collectors’ interest.

The watch the street vendor urges on you has a remarkably low price. Its face might say Chopard, Rolex, or Tag Heuer; it might look like the real thing; and it might even keep accurate time, but it’s a fake.

The fakes might be called copies, replicas, or knock-off watches. They’re for sale on the streets and in some retail stores in many cities around the world. They’re also available through what seems like countless websites.

They look authentic on the outside, but inside they’re poorly made using inferior parts. Some even have glued-on faces, so the hands never move! Most, if not all, have battery-powered quartz movements. Some will work reasonably well, while others will have failed by the next time you turn your wrist to check the time.

Most fake watches are counterfeits and violate copyright laws. This makes them illegal to sell. No reputable jeweler sells watch fakes.