What is that one thing, other than your phone and keys of course, that you cannot leave your house without? For most of us, it would be our watches.
Watches are indeed an essential part of our outfit; in fact, they have become a style statement for many celebrities as well. Speaking of watches, you must be aware that watches come in different types, styles, and configurations.
One such watch specification is the movement of the watch. Watches can be categorized into three categories based on their movements. These include manual or hand winding watches, automatic or self-winding watches, and electronic watches.
Out of the three, self-winding watches tend to fascinate and confuse their owners the most regarding their mechanisms, which is why in this article, we will be explaining how self-winding watches actually work.
What Is an Automatic Mechanical Movement Watch?
Automatic mechanical movement watches are better known as automatic or self-winding watches. These watches work on the principles of mechanical motion by rewinding the mainspring of the mechanical motion by making use of the natural movements of the watch owner’s body.
A watchmaker called John Harwood made the first watch of this kind back in 1923, whereas the first mechanism for self-winding watches was created in 1770 by Abraham-Louis Perrelet.
The Mechanism of a Self-Winding Watch
A self-winding watch works by winding itself without the need for any specific activity by the wearer. The watch needs an unconventional weight, called a winding rotor, to function. This rotor rotates in accordance with the activity and motion of the watch wearer’s wrist.
The side to side movement of the coiling rotor links with a ratchet to twist the mainspring of the watch automatically. Self-winding timepieces can generally be also wound by hand in order to keep them functioning when not worn, or when the wearer’s wrist is sedentary.
How Does a Self-Winding Watch Function?
Now that we have explained the basic mechanism of a self-winding watch, the functioning of the watch itself can be broken down in six easy stages. These are:
Step 1
Movements of the watch wearer’s wrist prompts the winding rotor to wind. Using gears, the mainspring is wound up.
Step 2
Each gear on the gear train are made to rotate by the winding rotor. This movement transfers kinetic energy.
Step 3
As a result of the moving gear, it supplies energy at regular intervals.
Step 4
Pallets drive the wheel in a back and forth motion, maintaining the oscillations of the balance wheel. The back and forth motions are also initiated using the mainspring’s kinetic energy.
Step 5
Every oscillation pushes the gear train.
Step 6
The advances caused by the gear train cause the hands of the watch on the dial to turn, hence causing the dial to function at regular intervals.
For everyone who has ever wondered how an automatic or self-winding watch actually works, we hope this article helps you understand how such watches function.
