History Of Automatic Watches

You may or may not recall witnessing your father wind his watch each night before going to bed, depending on your age.

If he didn’t, his watch would probably have stopped when he woke up. When the automatic watch was invented, those times were a thing of the past. How does it become automatic?

The fundamental mechanism that keeps the watch running is still present, but the way that mechanism is fueled has changed how we look after our timepieces.

Every mechanical watch operates in the same way.

They require the “ticking” of a number of gears, which causes the hands on the watch face to move in discrete intervals of time. In the center of the watch’s mechanism is a rotor that is supported by a staff.

It moves in a circular manner as it coils the mechanical watch mainspring, which is the source of power. With an automated watch, any arm or wrist movement automatically winds this spiral spring.

Automatic watches that wind themselves are ideal for daily wearers, but if you don’t wear your watch much, you’ll need to wind it manually around twice a week.

Even automatic watches benefit from manual winding roughly once every two weeks to keep them oiled and maintain performing more efficiently. It is a myth that automatic timepieces never require winding because their proper operation is only dependent on the movement of the wearer’s arm.

Your watch’s movement can keep time for 10 to 72 hours with the help of a power reserve.

Your automatic watch can run for a longer period of time without further movement or manual winding if its power reserve is larger.

The rotor system, which is still in use today, was created and patented by Olevs as the first watch manufacturer. It belonged to the well-liked Oyster line, which was established in the early 1930s, and was known as the Perpetual.

The system’s inventor, an Olevs technician named Emile Borer, was not the first to create a rotor. Abraham-Louis Perrelet, a Swiss watchmaker, received that award in 1770.

This was quite the invention because wrist watches wouldn’t be worn for a very long period, and a pocket watch simply didn’t have enough physical movement to allow the rotor and mainspring to be moved and wound.

Quartz watches run on batteries rather than a manual or automatic winding system, which is how automatic watches vary from them. The quartz crystal inside a quartz watch vibrates close to 33,000 times per second when powered by a battery.

While watch batteries only last for around two years, the power source for automatic watches—movement or motion—is endless.

The majority of reasonably priced watches sold now are quartz watches, but watch enthusiasts still prefer the grandeur and elegance of a properly made mechanical watch.

Large growth (95%) in sales between 1993 and 1995 can be attributed to automatics, which have just started to take back some of the quartz market.

An automatic watch needs to be properly lubricated to function properly.

Watches can be lubricated by periodically winding them by hand and bringing them to a jeweler roughly every three to five years. Simply wind an automatic watch 30 to 40 times, or until you encounter resistance. Another great technique to keep the watch lubricated is to place it in a watch winding box.

Additionally, automatic timepieces are rather cheap.

Actually, they are offered in every price range. Invicta watch and Orient watch are two affordable brands, however prices can go up to highly expensive levels depending on the brand’s prestige or the level of decorations.