The main component of our watch is the movement or calibre, powering your watch and enabling the hands to reliably track the time. However, there are quite some differences and we will take a closer look at some of the features of our various models.
Automatic or mechanical movements?
All of our watches are powered by mechanical movements powered by a wound-up mainspring and never needing a battery or charger. Mechanical watch movements are an entire world of its own, which we explore and explain in our detailed instructions.
However, most of our movements are automatic. While a mechanical watch requires the wearer to wind up the mainspring by turning the crown every 40-50 hours, automatic watches use a small weight on the back of the movement to wind up the spring through the movement of your wrist. Mechanical movements have seen a growing interest over the last years as the lack of a rotor enables a clear view onto the movement underneath while many contemplate the winding up motion as part of the ritual of putting on your watch of the day.
All automatic movements are mechanical movements - not all mechanical movements are automatic movements.
We are using mechanical movements for our Pilot and Classic Master watch kits, which can easily be wound up via the oversized crowns. For all other kits we are using our Japanese automatic movements.
Complications of movements
A complication is an additional function of a watch movement. A good example of this is our family of Japanese movements, which are all based on the NH family. The different types are differentiated by the additional complications, for example the NH-38 is a straight forward three hand movement (three hands indicating the time in a 12 hour cycle). This allows a very clean dial with a perfectly symmetrical layout, for example our Mayfair. As the NH-38 has a cut-out on its baseplate, part of the balance is visible through the top of the movement. Our open heart dials enable the wearer to see the balance ticking.
Next up is the NH-35 movement, which is constructed the same way as the NH-38 but has an additional date wheel visible around the outer edge of the movement. The date wheel will jump forward by one figure every 24 hours, driven by a small wheel at 11 oclock. This wheel is driven by the same gear train but effectively only has one teeth triggering the date change. This additional function attached to the gear train is a very common complication for diver watches with a date window somewhere on the dial.
Finally we have our NH-34A movement - an automatic calibre with not just the date complication but also a GMT complication to track a second timezone. A GMT movement has an additional fourth hand (usually in a different colour) which runs at a 24-hour cycle and can be set independently from the main three hands of your watch. The fourth hand can for exampe bet set to track EST as used on the East Coast of the USA, while the three other three hands operate as usual. As the GMT hand runs on half the speed, the hand is usually used in conjunction with a 24-hour index either on the dial as a subscale or with a 24-hour bezel.
GMT complications are another very well known complication and are often found on more expensive watches for adventurers, explorers, pilots or anyone with the need to manage significant time differences.