A Beginner's Guide to the Anatomy of a Watch

Watches, small as they are, are complex machines that contain hundreds to even thousands of minute components. If that wasn’t complicated enough, each watch has its own unique caliber and movement, and Horologists take years to study and understand these different parts and how they work together to form that masterpiece on your wrist.

In this article however, we will be skipping the various watch verbiage and instead focus on more common parts of the watch anatomy. Hopefully, the next time you take a visit down to your local watchmaker, you can use terms like “Crown” instead of “that spinning knob at the side of the watch”.

Crystal

The crystal (transparent covering of the watch) protects, while allowing people to view the interior of the watch. Think of it as a window to a house. 

Depending on the watch, the crystal can either be plastic (Acrylic), glass or sapphire with sapphire being the popular choice due to its durability and resistance to scratches.

Dial 

If watches were people, the dial would be the face. It is located behind the crystal and is the first thing that most people notice. More often than not, dials determine the personality of the watch and can come in a myriad of possible colours, textures and materials.

Case

The housing of the watch, containing and protecting the vital components that keep the watch ticking.

Additionally, the case thickness can vary. For example, the first generation Rolex GMT Master II was nicknamed the “Fat-lady” due to its significantly thicker case when compared to its predecessors.

Lugs

Lugs are the horn-like metal attachments at the ends of the watch case. They keep the watch connected to the strap with the help of tiny rods called spring bars. Nato straps can easily be pulled through the lugs above the spring bar and beneath the case, making changing Nato straps a seamless and effortless process.

Lug-widths typically range between 18mm to 24mm, with 20mm probably being the most popular lug-width size among watchmakers. When deciding what size you should get for your new watch strap, you need to measure the lug-width, which is the space between the lugs. 

Bezel (Pronounced as Beh-zel)

The bezel is the ring encasing the watch, keeping the crystal in place and protecting the dial. Bezels add great aesthetic value to the watch, albeit the fact that its functionality is often overlooked.

Here are some of the more iconic bezels that you can find on watches:

Count-up Bezel

 A vintage meters first Rolex Submariner on a khaki NATO strap 

Count-up bezels are typically found on dive or sports watches. It allows the user to count the elapsed time from the point that you set. By rotating the count-up bezel counter-clockwise until the 0 mark is aligned to the minute hand, you will be able to track the elapsed time, although only up to 1 hour.

Tachymeter Bezel

Tachymeter bezels are fixed bezels that are often found on motor-sport or racing related watches. They are typically used to gauge the speed of an object in conjunction with the distance travelled.

Pulsometer

Pulsometer bezels were introduced in the early 1900’s and were designed for medical physicians to determine the heart rate of their patients. 

Crown

The crown is the knob that is found on the side of the watch. The main function of the crown is to set the minute and hour hands, although some crowns allow you to set other functions in the watch as well (e.g. Date, Day-Date and Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) hands). 

Some dive or sports watches, especially vintage models, also use screw-down crowns to keep water out of the watch case, these crowns need to be unlocked by screwing them counter-clockwise before you can set the watch hands.

 

That's it for now, we hope you learned a thing or two about the various watch parts and their functions. Do keep an eye on our blog for more of our content.