What's the Difference between Automatic and Mechanical Watches ?
Time：
2024-01-10 10:22
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When you first get sucked into the world of watches, a couple of fundamental concepts await. First, you might learn to notice the difference between a seconds hand that ticks and one that smoothly sweeps.
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When you first get sucked into the world of watches, a couple of fundamental concepts await. First, you might learn to notice the difference between a seconds hand that ticks and one that smoothly sweeps.
But then, if you want to go deeper, you'll need to understand more about the engine that powers the watch, which is called a movement — and you'll inevitably be faced with the terms mechanical and automatic.
This, however, is much more than a matter of terminology, as learning about their differences is one of the best ways to delve into how a watch movement actually works. It can be a point of confusion for watch newbies, but isn't too hard to wrap your mind around. Here's what you'll want to know.
What's a "mechanical" watch?
A mechanical watch is powered by a spring. There are two primary systems for powering watches. One is via batteries (known as quartz) and the other is via a slowly unwinding spring — that's mechanical. The tension of the spring unwinding in a controlled manner (rather than all at once) drives a series of toothed wheels which, in turn, rotate the hands around the dial.
What is an "automatic" watch?
An "automatic" watch is a mechanical watch that is also self-winding.
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For the watch to keep functioning, the spring has to be wound. You usually can wind it manually by turning the watch's crown (the knob sticking off the side of the case), but someone came up with a very clever idea. It's called automatic winding.
Mechanical watches with automatic winding feature a rotating weight (a rotor) that pivots when the watch moves around — i.e., when you wear it and move your wrist. As it spins, it winds the spring. The term "self-winding" is anachronistic but a more descriptive term you might sometimes see for automatic winding.
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What are "manual," "manually wound" or "hand-wound" watches?
These are all functionally interchangeable terms for mechanical watches without automatic winding. It's simple at the root of it, but inconsistency in terminology across watch brands can be a little confusing.
Some brands will refer to their automatic watches as "automatic" and their manually wound watches as merely "mechanical" (even though their automatic watches are also mechanical). If it doesn't say "automatic," it probably isn't, just don't forget to look closely at product descriptions and specs and make sure you know what you're getting.
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