Our watch expert

Watch movements

A watch movement is the inner workings that make up its main timekeeping mechanism. It's the engine of a watch and may comprise up to 600 parts. It is what determines your watch's accuracy and reliability.

Mechanical

This is the traditional watch movement. A mechanical watch is driven by a slow release of power from a mainspring via a set of small cog wheels. The spring is wound up manually. A recent return to 'heritage' styling has seen a huge rise in the popularity of watches with a mechanical movement. Today, mechanical watches are viewed as much as works of art as a timepieces and require incredible skill in their making.

"A movement is the engine of a watch and can comprise of up to 600 parts"

Automatic

An automatic watch has a mechanical movement but it does not need to be regularly wound. Instead, it self-winds via a rotor with the movement of the wearer's wrist. Most automatic watches have a power reserve of up to 36 hours. The winder is retained as a feature on automatic watches so that the time and date can be altered manually.

Quartz

A quartz watch is powered by a battery. The electric current supplied by the battery causes the quartz crystal to oscillate at a fixed frequency. The frequency is broken down through an integrated circuit where power is released through a small stepping motor which sets the watch hands in motion. A quartz watch is extremely accurate and less expensive than comparable mechanical watches.