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The Encyclopedia of Horology

Watch family · Movement

Mechanical Wristwatch

Verified

A wristwatch driven by a mainspring acting through a mechanical gear train and escapement, as distinct from quartz or electronic timekeeping.

Movement & mechanism

  • Mainspring barrel, gear train, escapement (typically lever) and balance wheel with hairspring
  • Manual or automatic winding
  • Movement scaled down from pocket watch calibres to fit smaller wrist cases

Identification

  • Audible tick (lower beat rate than quartz sweep)
  • Sweeping or ticking seconds hand depending on frequency
  • No battery hatch on case back

Terminology

  • Calibre — a specific movement design
  • Beat rate — oscillations per hour of the balance

Known variations

  • Manual-wind
  • Automatic

Pocket-watch ancestry

The mechanical wristwatch did not require new invention: it repackaged existing pocket-watch calibres and escapements (chiefly the lever escapement, by then standard in pocket work) into a smaller case with wire or soldered lugs for a strap.

Collecting notes

The base category for nearly all mechanical wristwatch collecting; condition of the movement (originality of parts, service history) matters as much as case condition.

Photographs

Prim mechanical wrist watch disassembled part 1
Prim mechanical wrist watch disassembled part 1 — Kozuch, CC BY-SA 3.0. Wikimedia Commons file page
Prim mechanical wrist watch disassembled part 2
Prim mechanical wrist watch disassembled part 2 — Kozuch, CC BY-SA 3.0. Wikimedia Commons file page
Mechanical wristwatch
Mechanical wristwatch — Petar Milošević, CC BY-SA 3.0. Wikimedia Commons file page

Photographs are illustrative examples of the type, not necessarily the exact object described. Verify details against the source file page.

Sources & references

  1. Cutmore, M., Watches 1850–1980

Where sources disagree, the disagreement is stated rather than resolved silently.