Automatic Watches

About Automatic Watches

The preferred choice of most luxury watchmaking brands, the automatic movement is a mechanical movement with a self-winding feature. Unlike a mechanical watch, which requires manual hand-winding of the crown, an automatic watch runs by drawing energy from the wearer’s hand movement. Introduced first in the late 1700s for the use of pocket watches, the engineering of an automatic watch and its functionality have increased exponentially ever since. Mechanical or hand-wind watches require daily hand winding of the crown to keep them in motion. Watch engineers introduced the concept of an automatic watch to overcome this small, yet significant challenge. Allowing the wearer to enjoy their watch without having to worry about winding it manually every day at a particular time, automatic movements quickly became the pinnacle of watchmaking in the modern world.

Automatic and mechanical watches use similar mechanisms to build up tension at the mainspring. This fully built-up tension then powers the watch as it is released. For an automatic watch, the kinetic energy generated by the movement of the wearer builds the tension to power the watch. Every automatic watch comes equipped with a rotor that connects to the beating heart of the watch. This rotor uses strong metals like gold or platinum as ball bearings or weights.

An item of luxury, automatic watches can last forever providing the movement is serviced and maintained. To this extent, automatic watches can stay in the family for generations. The watch stops only when there is no physical movement and is immediately brought back to life by merely wearing the watch and setting its gears in motion. Accordingly, the lifespan of the watch never truly ends. Comprising of several hundred moving parts, automatic movements can only be assembled by hand, celebrating the true art form of fine watchmaking.

Automatic watches have many benefits when compared to other watch types. Primarily, you never have to worry about winding them on or changing a battery; they are a carefree choice for those who want to wear their watch with lots of pride and zero hassle.