How Does a Micro-Rotor Work in an Automatic Watch?
The micro-rotor: the mechanical elegance of the invisible For many, an automatic watch is that half-disc of metal spinning freely on the back of the movement, capturing the wrist’s…
Watchmaking
85 posts
Explore the technical world of watchmaking: automatic movements, complications, materials such as sapphire and titanium, and watch adjustment and maintenance. This category breaks down the mechanical and technological aspects of watches to give you a better understanding of how they work and their value.
How a Power Reserve Indicator Works
The mechanical watch’s “fuel gauge” On a mechanical watch, the power-reserve indicator has something deliciously human about it: it lets you see the mainspring’s impending fatigue, the end of…
What Is a “Railroad” Watch and What Is This Scale Used For?
A scale born from the need for precision, not an aesthetic whim In watchmaking vocabulary, the term “railroad” (or “chemin de fer” in French) refers to a minute track…
What Is a Small Seconds Watch?
A tiny detail, an outsized signature In the watchmaking world, some complications are very “visible”: multi-register chronographs, perpetual calendars, tourbillons spinning like mechanical jewels. But there are also more…
What Is a Watch with a Monobloc Case?
One piece, one idea: sealing time inside In watchmaking, some technical solutions read like manifestos. The one-piece case (or “monocoque”) is one of them. The principle is easy to…
What Is an “Ultra-Thin” Watch?
I remember my first encounter with an “ultra-thin.” I’m talking, of course, about an “ultra-thin watch” (what were you thinking?). Among these marvels of slenderness, a hand-wound watch truly defies…
What Is a Jumping Hour Watch?
A Different Way to Read Time In the collective imagination, a “classic” watch tells the time with hands: one for the hours, another for the minutes, sometimes a seconds…
Why Some Watches Stop When You’re Not Wearing Them
The little morning drama: a frozen watch, time on pause There’s that gesture—intimate, almost ceremonial: picking up your watch from the bedside table, feeling the cold metal or the…
Should You Polish Your Watch?
The temptation of “like new”: a sign of the times All it takes is a beam of light catching a scratched caseband for the thought to pop up: “What…
Why Enamel-Dial Watches Are So Sought After
The enamel dial: a quiet luxury that never goes out of style In a watch world saturated with spectacular finishes, new textures and bold colours, the enamel dial moves…
What Is a Power Reserve and Why It Matters
There is, in the ritual of a mechanical watch, a poetry that defies time. In the morning, you adjust a crown, feel the resistance of the mainspring, almost listen…
How to Read a Tachymeter on a Sports Watch?
The tachymeter: from practical function to identity marker On a sports watch, the tachymeter is that detail that catches your eye even before you’ve started the chronograph: a numbered…
Why Do Some Watches Have “Jumping” Seconds?
That intriguing “tick”: deadbeat seconds, a rhythm that’s not so anachronistic after all You may have noticed it in a display window, or on the wrist of a collector…
How Are Perlage and Geneva Stripes Applied to Movements?
The gestures that sculpt light Even before you read the time, the eye likes to wander. On a perlage-covered mainplate, light clings as if to fine sand. On a…
What Is an “In-House” (Manufacture) Movement?
The myth of “all in-house” Two words are enough to electrify a conversation among enthusiasts: “in-house” (or “manufacture”). A technical and symbolic password that has become a blunt instrument…
Why Are Some Watches COSC-Certified?
The word “chronometer” isn’t just a veneer Two lines on a dial are enough to make an enthusiast’s heart race: “Chronometer Officially Certified”. Behind that phrase lies more than a…