Automatic Watches

What are automatic watches? Automatic wind watches or simply automatic watches along with manual wind watches make up the broad type of watches known as mechanical watches. As the term mechanical suggests, mechanical watches are watches consisting of only mechanical parts and no electronics as do with quartz watches. Mechanical watches do not use batteries. Automatic watch got its name because it does not require the manual winding of the crown/stem to wind the main spring in the watch. The main spring is the source of energy for mechanical watches. Automatic watches are wind by the motion generate by the wearer's wrist. That is why when an automatic watch is not worn for an extensive period of time the watch will stop running.

In an automatic watch, the main spring is wound by the wearer's wrist motion. The energy is released from the main spring and is transmitted through a series of gears before reaching the escapement. The escapement is a mechanism that regulates how fast and how much energy from the main spring is release, and hence determines the accuracy of a watch.