The Evolution of Men's Watches

Men\'s watches have evolved over time and have become a marvel of engineering. Whether the watch is a modern quartz driven timepiece or a mechanical wristwatch driven by a balance wheel and a spring Men\'s watches have become a balance of elegance, fashion and function.

The modern electronic movement, having no moving parts uses a small quartz crystal to oscillate at a very specific rate or frequency, typically 360 hertz. This effect is known as the piezoelectric effect. The piezoelectric effect is the ability of a material, usually a crystal, to generate an electric potential in response to applied mechanical stress. The word piezo is Greek meaning to squeeze or press. Materials that have the ability to generate an electric potential when mechanical stress is applied also have the ability to contract when electricity is applied to them. These properties are useful in the making of a device that can move back and forth at a very specific rate. That all translates in to very accurate men\'s watches.

While electronic movements are far more accurate than a mechanical movement the mechanical movement is still considered to be an engineering masterpiece and a work of art. That makes the mechanical wristwatch sought after by collectors. Many manufacturers of men\'s wristwatches elect to make only mechanical movements due to the artistic nature of the movements and people\'s willingness to pay for that craftsmanship.

Quartz watches were first introduced by CEH Research Laboratory in Switzerland in 1962. The first production quartz wristwatch was made available in 1969. It was introduced by Seiko and was the Seiko 35 SQ Astron. Quartz movements can be produced in large quantities making them inexpensive to manufacture.

Quartz movements are typically accurate to one half second a day while mechanical movements can lose or gain several seconds each day. Several watchmakers have combined both mechanical and quartz movements to get the accuracy of the quartz and the beauty of the mechanical movement.

Some men\'s watches have gone to synchronizing their time to an external time source such as an atomic clock to drive accuracy. Atomic clocks are typically accurate to fractions of a second per decade. The date can be synchronized too making the timepiece accurate even when a leap year occurs or when daylight savings time changes.

There are many methods to power the modern men\'s wristwatches. Mechanical movements have a mainspring to power the movement. The first watches were manual and required the wearer to wind the mainspring by hand. Automatic watches also known as the perpetual watch, has and a weighted wheel that swings with the movement of the wearer and the mainspring is wound through that movement. This advancement in technology was invented in 1923 by John Harwood in England.

There are electronic watches that are powered the same way that automatic watches are, through kinetic energy. Most electronic watches are powered by a battery that can be replaced when it runs out. The Hamilton Watch Company in Pennsylvania created the first electronic watch in 1957.