Balance cock – this forms the upper pivot of the balance
and either partly or fully covers it. In early watches, this was heavily pierced and engraved, during the 19th century they
became smaller (only partly covering the balance) and usually only engraved, sometimes they are completely plain.
Chronometer – a description that is applied to many
types of watches, usually indicating that the watch has a large centre seconds hand. The watch often has some sort of stop
work, were by the train can be stopped and started. A variation on this idea is the fly-back chronometer, where the centre
seconds hand (and a subsidiary minute hand) are controlled separately from the main train and can be started, stopped and
return to zero without upsetting the running of the watch. This type of watch is often very complicated.
Cylinder –
A type of escapement designed by George Graham in about 1725. Later to become the most common type employed by Swiss and French
makers during the 19th & 20th century.
Detached lever – a type of escapement designed by Thomas
Mudge in the late 18th century, in which impulse to the balance is only given once for each rotation of the balance. This
reduces the friction on the balance and hence improves the accuracy of the watch. The most common form on English watches
of the 19th century is the table roller lever.
Fusee – a device to regulate
the uneven force of the main driving spring, as it runs down. It consists of a spiral grove cut into the side of a cone. This
is linked via the fusee chain, to the spring barrel. Because of the varying diameter of the fusee, the force acting on the
watch train is balanced against the weakening force from the spring as it runs down.
Gilding
– A thin layer of gold applied to a base metal, in watch cases, usually brass. This was originally done by applying
an amalgam of gold and mercury to the case and then heating it in an open fire, driving off the mercury as a vapor and leaving
a thin deposit of gold. This is not to be recommended, as mercury vapor is highly poisonous. During the 19th century this
process was replaced by gold plating also known as rolled gold or gold filled.
Going barrel
– Because of improvements in the manufacture of steel springs, it became possible to do away with the fusee. This meant
that the spring barrel drives directly onto the train. Gold Filled – Gold Filled is a process of taking 2
Bars of Solid Gold and placing them either side of a bar of base metal all 3 being of equal length and width. The 3 Bars are
then bonded together under extreme pressure at very High Temperature The are then sent through rolling mills under extreme
pressure and repeated until the desired thickness is reached. The new sandwich type is now in a sheet where the desired shapes
can be punched out. Watch cases are usually 10Karat or 14Karat Gold Filled Warranted. This should not be confused with Gold
Plating which has no law to guarantee the Gold content- whereas Gold Filled is Governed by Law and must contain Pure Solid
Gold. A Gold Filled item has Gold content and is far more durable than Gold Plating. It also has the advantage of being more
robust than pure gold.
Gruen – In its glory years from the 1920s through the 1940s, the
Gruen Watch Company of USA & Switzerland was one of the leaders in wristwatch design and quality, even collaborating with
Rolex (i.e., the Aegler movement duo-dial doctor’s watch) from its factories in Switzerland. Prior to WWII, Gruen was
better known in the USA than Rolex, which at that time was concentrating on the British and Commonwealth countries (hence
lots of early Rolexes coming out of Australia and the UK). Hans Wilsdorf and Gruen were friends and neighbors in Switzerland
(their factories were just yards away), and even agreed to market their watches as Rolex Gruen in Europe, but the Great Depression
(and more urgent matters) prevented this.
Hunter case
– a design of watch case where the whole of the dial is covered by a metal cover which flips open when the pendant button
or crown is pressed. A variation on this is the half-hunter where the front cover has a small opening (less than the diameter
of the dial) through which the hands can be viewed without opening the cover. The front of the cover is usually marked with
the hours.
Jewelling – The pivots of the wheels (cogs) are made to
run in jewels which have had small holes drilled through them. This arrangement reduces friction and ware; therefore the operation
of the watch is usually more reliable.
Keyless – an arrangement that allows the watch
to be wound up via a crown protruding from the top of the watch. By pulling the crown out, the hands can also be set. A variation
on this is known as ‘pin set’ where a small pin near the crown, is pressed in to allow the hands to be set.
Longines – The Longines story starts back in 1832 when Auguste Agassiz opened a small 'comptoir'
(workshop) in St. Imier. One of Auguste's sisters married Marc Francillon, a shopkeeper from Lausanne and in 1834 they
had a son, Ernest Francillon. At that time watch-making in the area used the skills of people working away from the 'comptoir',
often at home. In 1866, Ernest Francillon constructed a factory on fields at "Es Longines", near to St. Imier, and
brought all of the watch-making skills under one roof - this was the first "Longines factory".Anyone concerned with
the history of Longines of Saint-Imier is bound to plunge into the most thrilling adventures, which have become the stuff
of legend of modern times. Longines developed aviators' watches and cockpit instruments. Longines led the field as time-keepers
to the world of sports, developing precision stop watches for athletes. Longines was at the Olympic Games and ensured that
athletes' performances were accurately recorded. But it is not merely to its top-quality range that this watch-making
firm owes its greatness and importance. By the time Longines was celebrating the 100th anniversary of the registration of
the brand-name and logotype - the winged hour-glass - in 1967, the Saint-Imier watchmakers had made 15 million watches and
sold them all. For all these reasons, therefore, Longines is a virtually inexhaustible mine of reasonably priced collectors'
items, ranging from pocket chronometers to classic wrist-watches and milestones of quartz technology. Longines later became
part of the Wittnauer and Vacheron watch family.
Maintaining
power – This is a device, which is fitted to the fusee and provides power to the train during winding.
Marine
Chronometer – this refers to a very accurate type of watch used to measure time at sea with the purpose of determining
longitude. John Harrison designed the first really accurate watch for this purpose in the 1760s. Most marine chronometers
use some variation on the Dentent escapement.
Motion work – an arrangement
of wheels (cogs) under the dial that dive the hour and minute hands. Niello – The term nielo comes from the Latin
word nigellum that is the diminutive of niger (black.) It was a technique used by the ancient Greeks, Romans, Egyptians and
Persians. Niello is a black or blackish-blue composition of lead, silver, copper, sulfur and ammonium chloride. The mixture
is fused onto an engraved or cut-out metal base by firing the mix in a process similar to champleve' enameling. Silver
was the most often used metal for niello objects since the soft white silver color contrasted beautifully with the darker
niello. Rose-gold inlay work was also seen in combination with niello and tri-color effects were achieved by the use of rose-gold,
niello and silverWhen the niello was heated and fired onto a silver watch case, it actually fused with the silver
very strongly, almost as if it were soldered in place. The niello would be filled, finished and polished, leaving the surface
of the watch case smooth and flat. One can readily assume that the process of engraving the areas which were to be filled
with niello, the firing stages, and the finishing stages were very time consuming and therefore costly. Aside from the production
end, the niello cases also had to be designed by artists who would pre-determine the subject matter and then the cases were
finished by engravers who produced the fine details.
Pendant
– the protuberance on top of a watchcase usually carrying a ring or bow to allow the watch to be fixed to a chain.
Later this became the winding crown in keyless watches.
Regulator
– this is a device that allows the rate (accuracy) of the watch to be adjusted by changing the effective length
of the balance spring (hair spring). The longer it is, the slower the rate of the watch, and the shorter it is, the faster
the watch will go. There are several ways in which this can be done. In old verge watches this is either by a Tompion or Bosely
type under the balance. On later watches this often moved to the balance cock. It became increasingly complex, particularly
in early 20th century American watches.
Repeater – this is a watch
where the hours, quarters and sometimes the minutes, are struck on gongs or rods within the watch, much the same as a Grandfather
clock. They usually have a button that can be pressed to repeat the chimes, hence the name repeater.
Verge – The first escapement to be used in watches. Known
as a frictional rest type of escapement because the drive is constantly in contact with the balance.
Commodity Prices – The
first thing you should study is the historical growth chart for Gold Spot Prices... over time it always goes up! The same
holds true for Silver. Buy when the daily spots have dropped slightly, and you will be seeing your investment rise in value
imminently!
