A Simple Guide to Watch Movement


A watch, when taken apart, is a glorious feat of mechanics. Made up of cogs, batteries, springs and hands – among other parts – it’s an amazing piece of engineering, which works together to enable you to tell the time, accurately, every day. However, it’s the watch movement which brings it all together and makes your watch, quite literally, tick.

So what is a watch movement? Is it affected by a new watch battery? And do you need to do anything to keep it tick top? Here’s a simple guide to the watch movement:

The Three Main Watch Movements

The watch movement is the part of the watch that drives the hands on the watch face. It also powers any other functions, such as a calendar. There are a three types of watch movement which are all slightly different.

Mechanical Watch Movement

A mechanical watch movement, or a manual watch movement as they are also known, use a mechanism rather than electricity to measure time. The mechanical movement is therefore wound by a spring, which means that mechanical watches need to be wound regularly.

Your watch, therefore, won’t require a new watch battery. You will need to wind it every day, but many watch lovers enjoy this traditional watch experience. And as mechanisms go, mechanical mechanisms are really beautiful, which can lend some aesthetics to your timepiece!

Quartz Watch Movement

A Quartz Watch movement uses a small battery as its power source. It doesn’t need winding like a mechanical watch does, and it’s currently the most accurate movement available.

The accuracy is maintained by the constant vibration of the quartz crystal. It works well in many different environments, and uses a minimum amount of electricity, which means that it takes a long time for the battery to need replacing.

Automatic Watch Movement

Automatic watches wind themselves while the watch is being worn. They are powered by the natural motion of the wearer’s wrist. This means that you don’t have to wind it manually on a daily basis, but, if the timepiece isn’t worn for some time, it will stop and you will then have to hand wind it.

Taking Care of your Timepiece

All watches should be serviced regularly, and it may be that you need a new watch battery for your quartz watch. When it comes to a service or a new watch battery, Ilford, Woodford, Barkingside or Chigwell based watch lovers can visit E.K. Jewellers. We have experience of servicing all types of watches, and have a wide range of in stock batteries, so no matter what type of watch you have, we can keep it ticking over!

Posted on by Ian Tubby.