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mainspring - The principal or power spring of a watch.
mainspring barrel - A geared barrel that houses the watch mainspring.
marine chronometer - A high-grade, larger mechanism invented in the late 1700s for use on ships to determine their longitude. Mechanical chronometers are placed in wooden boxes and mounted on gimbals so they will constantly remain in the horizontal position for greater accuracy.
Mean Solar Day - The average of all of the solar days in one year.
mechanical automatic wind - A watch which has mechanical moving parts and winds its mainspring automatically using an internal rotor system.
mechanical manual wind - A watch which has mechanical moving parts and requires its mainspring to be manually wound.
minute repeater - A complicated watch that strikes (chimes) the hours, quarter hours and minutes past the previous quarter-hour.
moonphase - The function or complication of a watch which displays the phases of the earth’s moon cycle.
movement - The internal mechanism of a watch. Assembly of parts and main components such as the mainspring, balance assembly, escapement, train of wheels, setting and winding .
musical watch - A watch made with a mechanism like a music box that plays a melody on each hour automatically, or on demand with a slide or button.
offset seconds - A style of dial where the sub-seconds of a watch is located to one side of the conventional 6:00 location of a sub-seconds dial.
open face - A style of case where the dial is open to view and is not covered by a lid or cover, as in a hunting style case.
Oyster watch - The name given by Rolex Watch Company to their waterproof watches.
pallet - Shaped like a ship's anchor, this is part of the lever escapement.
patina - Discoloration or oxidation of any surface due to age.
pave - A style of setting stones so close together that no metal is allowed to show.
pendant - The part of a pocket watch where the bow and winding crown are attached.
pendant set - Method of setting the hands on a pocket watch by using the stem and winding crown.
perpetual calendar - A function or complication of a watch which displays correctly, without adjustment, the day, date and month, and also accounts for leap year cycles.
pivot - The end of an arbor which has been reduced or turned down. Three common styles of pivots are conical, cone and square shoulder.
plate - This part of the movement supports the other plates and bridges.
platinum - A hard, white metallic element used in the manufacture of watch cases and bracelets.
pocket chronometer - A pocket watch fitted with a chronometer-type escapement.
pocket watch - A watch designed to be worn in a pocket.
power reserve indicator - An indicator hand on a dial which displays how much the mainspring is wound up or down.
pulsimeter - Type of chronograph with a dial scale indicating the average heartbeat rate over a certain period of time.
push button - External button on outside edge of case. Used to start or stop specific functions or complications of the watch, such as chronographs and alarms.
pushers - External pieces mounted on the outside edge of a case used to activate various functions of a watch, such as the chronograph and alarm features.
quarter-hour repeater - A complicated watch that strikes (chimes) the hours and quarter-hours.
quartz watch - A watch whose battery-powered mechanism uses electrical energy to cause vibrations in a synthetic quartz crystal at the very high rate of 100 kilocycles per second. Electronic quartz watches are some of the most accurate watches produced.
quick-date - A setting position from the watch winding stem assembly allowing a person to change the date without having to advance the hands through a 24 hour period.
quick-set - A setting position from the watch winding stem assembly allowing a person to change the day or date without having to advance the hands through a 24 hour period.
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