Can i have explanations for some watch terminologies?
- Analog: The traditional dial; keeping time with hands.
- Aperture: The date display window on a watch dial.
- Calendar:
Displays featuring the day, date or year in addition to the hour;
analog watch dials show this feature in apertures or subdials.
- Caliber: The configuration and size of the watch movement.
- Countdown Timer: A chronograph function that measures how much of a preset period of time has passed.
- Chronograph:
A watch with multiple functions measuring specific durations of time,
often in fractions of a second. Subdials and hands measure the time
periods; such as the stopwatch of a sports watch.
- Chronometer:
A high-precision timepiece whose movement has been quality-tested by
the Controle Officiel Suisse des Chronometres [COSC], a Swiss
laboratory. The COSC tests the movement at five different positions and 3
different temperatures for several consecutive days to determine
accuracy. Timepieces qualifying as chronometers include a COSC
certification number.
- Complication: Refers to any watch function other than the basic timekeeping function, e.g. calendars, stopwatches, alarms and other extras.
- Digital:
A dial that shows the time and other features in a LCD (liquid crystal
display) or LED (light emitting diode) display. This feature is useful
displaying information on a multifunction watch.
- Dual Time:
A display that shows two time zones on the dial. The feature can have
two dials, a subdial placed in the main dial, or analog and digital
displays on the same watch.
- Guilloche:
A pattern of ridges that ripple outward from the center of a flat
surface; a sunburst pattern. This texture is common on the dials of
dress watches.
- Horology: The history and craft of making watches, clocks and other devices for measuring time.
- Jewels: The jewels form the bearings in a mechanical or automatic watch. The movement generally will have at least 17 jewels.
- Kinetic:
A watch mechanism or battery that is powered by natural movements of
the wearer's arm. A quartz watch with kinetic movement never needs a new
battery.
- Lap Timer:
A chronograph function that measures segments of a race; it can stop to
show the time for each lap without losing track of the total race time.
- Manual wind:
Another term for the mechanical watch. To build up a store of power in
the movement, the user winds a crown on the watch case by hand.
- Mechanical:
Watch movement using a spring that must be wound by hand. The spring
slowly unwinds to release the energy that powers the watch.
- Moon Phase Dial: A subdial that tracks the phases of the lunar month. Some watches have a Sun and Moon subdial which tracks the 24-hour day.
- Movement: The finished assembly of the inner workings of a watch.
- Perpetual Calendar: Automatically resets the day at the end of the month or year, including leap years.
- Power Reserve:
The amount of energy, notated in hours, that a watch has stored in its
movement. The average mechanical or automatic watch has a full power
reserve of about 36 hours.
- Réserve de Marche:
A French term for the power-reserve function. The amount of energy,
notated in hours, that a watch has stored in its movement. The average
mechanical or automatic watch has a full power reserve of about 36
hours.
- Skeleton: This case design displays the watch movement with an open dial or with a clear crystal placed on the case back.
- Sweep Hand:
The marker that denotes the seconds as it moves around the dial of an
automatic watch. Also called the sweep second hand, this marker moves in
a smooth arc on the dial. The second hand of a quartz watch will click forward in second-long increments.
- Tachymeter: A register set on the bezel that measures the distance covered over a specific period of time.
- World Time: Found in digital watches, this function features a list of the current times in major cities around the world.
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