Talk:Watch
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Also there is no section on turbillons. The complication paragraph needs to be expanded to include grand complications and other variations, jewels etc. There is so much more to watches than this article. This is very dissappointing.
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What is the etymology of the word 'watch' (as in "a small portable timepiece"?) How do self-winding mechanical watches work?
I removed this sentence, "About 4 times per day a radio wristwatch will check this radio signal and reset itself to the exact time." My Casio G-Shock only resets once per day. Is 4 times a day normal and the G-Shock is the exception to the rule? It seemed like this was at least an overgeneralization.
[edit] American Made Watches
I question the validity of this paragraph:
Important collectible American made watches from the early 20th Century were the best available at any price. Leading watchmakers included Elgin, Gruen, Hamilton, and Illinois. Hamilton is generally considered as having the finest early American movements, while the art deco styling of The Illinois Watch Company was unsurpassed worldwide. Early Gruen Curvex models remain very desired for how they entwined form and function, and Elgin made more watches than anyone else.
It appears biased, the last sentence doesn't elaborate on 'entwining form and function' which is a very abstract phrase. Also in the same sentence it not only has a grammatical error by having a comma followed by the word 'and' but it also makes very bold point that is irrelevant to the rest of the sentence. I think a citation would be required when making as bold a statement as a company making more watches than any other company for the entire century.
[edit] Luxury watches
Perhaps high end watches needs to be addressed in further depth. Chopard and Cardier as well as most women's watches are thought of as more of jewelry and hence many are quartz. While Breguet, Blancpain, Patek are rarely quartz, and hence rarely thought of as jewelry or ornamentation but as timepieces. The section describing high end watches needs to be cleaned up, one can tell it was not written by someone that knows watches. Also I don't believe Patek invented the first wristwatch, i thought it was Breguet??
- First please, excuse my movement of your post to this section; it will make it easier for others interested in the discussion to join. I agree that there should be more written about the high-end watch market. The only issue I have here is that there is debate as to where some brands fall (though others are clearly in certain groups). A good page that was alreadly linked to on this article can be found here [1]. My only problems are that it spends far too long trying to explain that Rolexes aren't the be-all, end-all of watches and having a giant love-in with Omega watches and not enough on the brilliant table at the bottom that makes an admirable attempt at splitting the higher-end watches into sub-groups based on reputation and price. As a guide to the way brands are split, here are the example given for each sub-group:
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- High-end luxury - A Lange and Sohne, Alain Silberstein, Audemars Piguet, Blancpain, Breguet, Franck Muller, JLC, Parmigiani, Patek Phillipe, Ulysse Nardin, Vacheron Constantin
- Luxury - Breitling, Cartier, Ebel, Omega, Rolex
- Pseudo Luxury Watches - Baume & Mercier, Raymond Weil, Tag Heuer
- Basic Luxury Watches - Epos, Fortis, Movado, Oris
I don't know about you but this (as well as the explanations of the groups in the table seems reasonable based on my (admitedly limited) experience with luxury watches. I imagine there will be some debate on those makers not included on this list, and where they fit in as well as on other topics but I'd appreciate feedback from all about placing this table in the article or perhaps even starting (an, IMO, long overdue artilce on luxury watches in particular).--Zoso Jade 08:25, 8 January 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Link to german version
There is a bit of a problem with the link to the german, as the english "watch" basically means "the union set of pocketwatches and wristwatches" (correct?) and there is no such word in german (there is a word for general "timekeeping device" and specific types of them, but no word that encompasses exactly those 2 specific types). The link was towards pocketwatches and I've changed it to wristwatches as those are more common, is this okay with everybody? Peter S. 16:46, 2 August 2005 (UTC)
Today, nearly every Westerner wears a watch on his wrist
I think we need to correct that. Since cell phones are popular (since 5 years or so) I think less and less people (specialy teenagers) wear watches.
[edit] El Questiono
Why does my watch say: Mon, Tue, Wed, Thur, Fri, Sat, Sun from 1am to 12am and Dom, Lun, Mar, Mie, Jue, Vie, Sab (el spanisho) from 12am to 1am??? Answer that one... :P~
- Your mechanical watch was built to display the day in either English or Spanish. The date wheel inside has the names of the days in both languages. When you set the watch, you will have some way of indexing it to either the Spanish or English names.
- To advance from Dom to Lun, it has to move the date wheel two "steps". It makes these movements an hour apart. If you look at in during that hour, you will see the "off" language.
- Watches with many complications that need to change daily don't always change them in a single set of motions. It is normal for a watch to take several hours to prepare all the displays (day, date, month, etc.) for the new day. Since this typically happens in the middle of the night, when the wearer awakes, the watch is ready. -O^O
[edit] News of my deatch.........
The beginning of the watch discussion suggests that mechanical watches are a thing of the past. Mechanical watches are produced today in the millions and will be for the forseeable future. Switzerland produced 100 million mechanical watches from 1990 to 2000.
[edit] Watchmakers and Watch Brands
I'm wondering about the usefulness of this list in its current form. It is a very long list of watch makers with links to their website without any additional information. Does someone has an idea on how this list may be used by wikipedia readers ? Dragice 10:40, 16 December 2005 (UTC)
[edit] Where's the Cesium?
Why no mention of cesium clocks? TheLimbicOne 16:47, 23 December 2005 (UTC)
[edit] Commercial Links
I suggest we remove links to commercial watch vendors such as "misterwatch" and limit links to resource pages only
- Agreed. I keep removing that one, and it keeps coming back. I have just reported the URL to the Spam blacklist, so I hope it will get permanently blocked some day. --Heron 12:24, 25 February 2006 (UTC)
[edit] is there anyone can anser me this Q?
i found out that almost 99% of analoge watches shown in magazine,newspaper or cataloge show the same time. that is 10.10. why is it 10:10.is there any meaning?
Answer: This is a recurring question on many watch fora. The most common answer is: the 10:10 position looks like a 'smile'. If the hands would point to, for example, 7:20, the hands would form a 'frown'. Another answer is that this position usually doesn't block any of the watch's important features or markings (the logo, the date window, etc.). Even some digital watch manufacturers do this.
[edit] removed nonsense
- More than this, digital watches have the more philosophical implication of fragmenting the linear and controlling functions of time. By presenting only a number that can be glanced at in a vaccum from all other time, they free the reader from a spatial notion of time. Mechanical watches force us to see time as a moving hand on a clock face, whereas the flashes of a digital clock open the space for different interpretations and can help to ensure that our bodies and minds are not conrolled by the flows of linear time. James Herndon, a communications scholar with a focus on time studies, argues that "any attempt to disempower the biojuridical phenominological existence of timepieces that fails to recognize and delineate mechanical vis a vis digital timepieces is scholastically absurd to the point of being asinine."
- removed above piece of nonsense from the digital watch#Digital watches section.
- --Unconcerned 04:35, 13 April 2006 (UTC)
- not quite "nonsense", but indeed it is quite over-wrought in language and, furthermore, is theoretical in nature. What the passage is trying to say is that digital watches forces you to regard time in the immediate sense, as an absolute value ("It's 2:49 right now"), while an analog watch forces you to see time in relation to the coming or passing hours ("It's ten minutes 'til two").
[edit] waterproofing
There is no section on waterproof watches: how is it achieved and what do the different waterproofing ratings mean (50m, 100m, etc.)? There is a common misconception that the 'm' rating is actually the maximum depth underwater that the watch can handle, however, this is not true. I believe 50m meant that the watch is splash-proof, 100m means it's swim-proof, and larger numbers are for diving and deep diving. I am, however, unsure of the exact specifications. Please add a section with appropriate information. maraz 14:38, 23 August 2006 (UTC)
- First of all, it's usually water-resistant, not water-proof. Second, it varies by manufacturer. However, I think Seiko is a typical, good-quality watch maker, without being a luxury watch maker, though they do make some more expensive watches, including diving watches. Here's the Seiko FAQ: see the section on this topic: Seiko FAQ. Feel free to add the information to the article--Wikipedia is the encyclopaedia anyone can edit. -THB 20:00, 15 January 2007 (UTC)
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- Made section, Watch#Water_resistance. At least, it's a start. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 00:31, 16 January 2007 (UTC)
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- 20Bar is 200 meters. Are you asking or are you asking for the info to be put in the article? =P --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 18:03, 16 January 2007 (UTC)
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[edit] Timepieces vs. clocks
I have added brief references to the nature of "timepieces" (such as wristwatches) that lack striking mechanisms, and noted that this distinction sets them apart from "clocks," which usually have bells or gongs that announce the passage of time. Some watches, of course, have this feature and can correctly be designated clocks. It is hoped that this distinction will be helpful to those who investigate timekeeping instruments and their useful characteristics. Jack Bethune 19:19, 27 August 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Wrist Watch invented in the end of the 19th century?
I sincerely doubt this. While researching Baroque paintings, I encounter the French piece of A Lady on Her Day Bed , 1743 by François Boucher. His wife is posed reclining upon a day bed and is clearly wearing a wrist watch. The piece is located in the Frick. External Link:Painting in the Frick Collection displaying the wrist watch
- The first documented sale of a wristwatch was by Breguet to the Queen of Naples in 1810. Adam Wang 15:56, 1 October 2006 (UTC)
[edit] How do stopwatches work?
I decided to answer this question before it's asked. Watch crystals are invariably 32768Hz. Divide by two, 15 times, and you get 1Hz pulses to drive a watch counter or electromechanical movement. So, I hear you ask, how do stopwatches work, these count in 10ths or even 100ths of a second? Well they could re-engineer the whole thing to use a different frequency of crystal, perhaps 100kHz instead of 32.768kHz, then the required fractions of a second could be taken from divide-by-10 counters. They could, but they don't. In practice the stopwatch adds 1/32768 second fractions to a counter and calculates how many 10ths or 100ths of a second have elapsed since the start signal. Of course this is an approximation, but good enough for a wristwatch. This is done because 32.768kHz crystals and trimmers are readily available in the required small size for a watch, other frequencies would consume more space and the dividers would probably consume more power. Colin99 19:51, 8 January 2007 (UTC)
I note that someone has changed from "most" to "many" watches have 32768Hz crystals. No, it should be most. Virtually all in fact. Name a recent quartz watch which uses any other frequency... Colin99 22:10, 18 January 2007 (UTC)
