TX™: THE DAWN OF TECHNOLUXURY™

TECHNICALLY SPEAKING PAGE
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y

The following glossary of technical watch terminology has been developed to help you better understand many of the features, materials and aspects of styling found in the world of TechnoLuxury™.

ALARM
Alerts the user with beeps at pre-set time(s).

ALTIMETER
An instrument for determining elevation normally based on changes in barometric pressure.

ANALOGUE
A watch that shows the time using hour and minute hands.

APERTURE
Small opening. The dials of some watches (in French: montres à guichet) have apertures in which certain indications are given (e.g., the date, the hour, etc.)

APPLIQUÉ
Appliqué or applied chapters are numerals or symbols cut out of a sheet metal and stuck or riveted to a dial.

ATOMIC TIME
Atomic Time Standard is provided by the US National Institute of Standards and Technology, Time and Frequency Division in Boulder, Colorado. Atomic time is measured through vibrations of atoms in a metal isotope that resembles mercury. The result is extremely accurate time that can be measured on instruments. Radio waves transmit this exact time throughout North America. Atomic watches and clocks can receive the signal.

AUTOMATIC WATCH
A watch whose mainspring is wound by the movements or accelerations of the wearer's arm. On the basis of the principle of terrestrial attraction, a rotor turns and transmits its energy to the spring by means of an appropriate mechanism. The system was invented in Switzerland by Abraham-Louis Perrelet in the 18th century.

BAR, LUG
In wristwatch-cases, a thin metal rod fixed between the horns, for attaching the wristlet.

BATTERY LIFE
The projected life of a battery in a watch based on an assumed frequency of use of any special features (if any).

BEZEL
The ring that surrounds the watch dial and separates the crystal from the watch case.

CABOCHON CROWN
A highly polished, convex-cut, un-faceted gem commonly used in decorating the crown of a watch.

CALIBRE
Originally used to mean the size of a watch movement, this term now denotes a type of movement (men's calibre, automatic calibre, etc.) When a calibre number is accompanied by the manufacturer's mark, it serves as an indication of origin.

CASE
Container that protects the watch-movement from dust, damp and shocks. It also gives the watch as attractive an appearance as possible, subject to fashion and the taste of the public.

CASING (UP)
Process of inserting and fixing a watch movement into its case.

CHRONOGRAPH
Watch or other apparatus with two independent time systems: one indicates the time of day, and the other measures brief intervals of time. Counters registering seconds, minutes and even hours can be started and stopped as desired. It is therefore possible to measure the exact duration of a phenomenon. Not to be confused with the timer, the stopwatch and the chronometer.

CHRONOMETER
Watch which has undergone a series of precision tests in an official institute. The requirements are very severe: a few seconds per day in the most unfavourable temperature conditions (for mechanical watches) and positions that are ordinarily encountered.

COMPASS
A device used to determine geographic direction.

COMPLICATION
A watch which has one or more functionalities beyond basic time-keeping capabilities.

COSC
Control Officiele Suisse de Chronometers or Swiss Controle Officiele des Cronometres-the independent Swiss regulatory organization that rigorously tests and certifies (or fails) watch movements for chronometer status. They test watches for 15 days and nights at five different positions and temperature ranges. They either pass or fail the watch movement. If the watch passes it is called a chronometer.

CROWN
Knurled knob located on the outside of a watch case and used for winding the mainspring. It is also used for setting the hands to the right time and for correcting the calendar indications.

CRYSTAL
Thin plate of glass or transparent synthetic material, for protecting the dials of watches, clocks, etc. Watch crystals are normally either mineral or sapphire. Where mineral (500 - 800 Vickers) is softer, thus more shatter resistant, it is more susceptible to scratching than sapphire. Sapphire (2,200 - 2,300 Vickers - 7X harder than steel) is a much harder crystal, rendering it much more resistant to scratches.

DATE
Ordinal number referring to a day of the month: the 10th February. Date-watch: watch indicating the date, the month and sometimes the year and the phases of the moon. Also called a calendar-watch or calendar. Perpetual calendar: watch indicating leap years as well as the date.

DEPLOYMENT CLASP
A deployment clasp is the type where the clasp opens out and folds. Buckle usually refers to the strap type band while a clasp is usually associated with a metal bracelet.

DIAL
Indicating “face" or plate of metal or other material, bearing various markings to show, in ordinary watches and clocks, the hours, minutes and seconds. Dials vary very much in shape, decoration, material, etc. The indications are given by means of numerals, divisions or symbols of various types.

DISPLAY
Indication of time or other data, either by means of hands moving over a dial (analogue display) or by means of numerals appearing in one or more windows (digital or numerical display); these numerals may be completed by alphabetical indications (alphanumerical display) or by signs of any other kind. Example: 12.05 MO 12.3 = 12 hours, 5 minutes, Monday 12th March. Such displays can be obtained by mechanical or electronic means.

DUAL TIME
A feature that allows you to choose between two time zones.

EOL
'End of Life' indicator.

FLY-BACK CHRONOGRAPH
In a chronograph with analogue display, an additional centre second hand which can remain  superposed on the other one as it moves, can be stopped independently and then made to "fly back" so as to catch up with the other hand, can be stopped and reset to zero together with the other hand. In chronographs with numerical display, a "function" having the same effect.

FLYBACK HAND
Appreciated by pilots for its time-saving benefits, the fly-back function returns the chronograph hand to zero at a single press of the lower button. The hand then restarts upon its release. Without this feature, several operations would be necessary.

GOLD PLATING
A layer of gold electroplated to a base metal.

HAND
An indicator usually made of a thin, light piece of metal, very variable in form, which moves over a graduated dial or scale. Watches usually have three hands showing the hours, minutes and seconds.

IONIC PLATING (IP)
See 'PVD'

JEWEL
Bearing, end-stone or pallet used for reducing friction. Generally made of synthetic material, except for the precious or semi-precious stones (ruby, sapphire, and garnet) which are sometimes used in "deluxe" watches.

LUGS
Extensions on either side of the bezel where the bracelet or strap is attached.

MARINE CHRONOMETER
Highly accurate mechanical or electronic timekeeper enclosed in a box (hence the term box chronometer), used for determining the longitude on board ship. Marine chronometers with mechanical movements are mounted on gimbals so that they remain in the horizontal position is necessary for their precision.

MECHANICAL MOVEMENT
A movement based on a mainspring which is wound by hand; when wound, it slowly unwinds the spring in an even motion. An automatic mechanical requires no winding because of the rotor, which winds the mainspring every time you move your body.

MICRON
A unit of length. One millionth of a meter or one thousandth of a millimetre. One micron equals 0.00004 of an inch.

MIDDLE
Middle part of the case, in which the movement is fitted.

MINERAL CRYSTAL
See 'Crystal'

MOH'S SCALE
A measure of a mineral's hardness and its resistance to scratching invented by Austrian mineralogist, Friedrich Moh. The scale goes from talc (number 1) being the softest, to diamonds as number 10, being the hardest substance known by man. Most gemstones fall in the 6-8 range. (1) talc (2) gypsum (3) calcite (4) fluorite (5) apatite (6) feldspar (7) quartz (8) topaz (9) corundum (10) diamond. Sapphire crystals have a rating of 9, whereas mineral crystals have a rating of 6.

MOTHER-OF-PEARL
Iridescent, milky interior shell of the fresh water mollusc that is sliced thin and used on watch dials. While most have a milky white lustre, mother-of-pearl also comes in other colours such as silvery gray, gray blue, pink, and salmon.

MOVEMENT
Assembly consisting of the principal elements and mechanisms of a watch or clock: the winding and setting mechanism, the mainspring, the train, the escapement, the regulating elements. "Anatomically", the movement consists of the "ébauche", the regulating elements and the other components.

PERPETUAL CALENDAR
A type of calendar that automatically adjusts for months of different lengths and indicates February 29 in each leap year.

PUSHER
Any button that operates the special functions of watches.

PVD (PHYSICAL VAPOR DEPOSITION)
Environment-friendly surface treatment that results in an extremely hard wearing, long-lasting coasting that is up to five times more resistant than conventional coatings. PVD is rated at a hardness of approximately 1,150 to 1,250 Vickers.

QUARTZ
Used to describe a watch powered by an oscillating quartz crystal which draws its power from a small battery. Oscillating 32,768 times per second, an electronic circuit divides this oscillation into precise increments of 1 second or less. Used in both digital and analogue watches. Whilst derided by many purists as disposable and of little soul, the quartz watch is nonetheless extremely accurate. Watches have been made super-accurate by using a much higher frequency (e.g., 4.2 million cycles per second) or by using two oscillators and temperature compensation.

REPEATER
Watch that strikes the hours by means of a mechanism operated by a push-piece or bolt. There are various types of repeaters. Quarter-repeater: sounding a low note for the hours and a "ding-dong" for each of the quarters; Five-minute repeater: striking the hours, quarters and five-minute periods after the quarter; Minute-repeater: striking the hours, quarters and minutes; Grande sonnerie (grand strike): striking the hours and quarters automatically and repeating when a push-piece is pressed down; Chiming repeater: in which the quarters are struck on three or four gongs of different pitch.

REPEATER
A complication on a watch that can strike the time in hours, quarters, or seconds by means of a push piece.

RETROGRADE
Used to describe a pointer hand on a watch dial (often a sub-dial) which returns to zero at the end of a prescribed period. For example, a watch may have retrograde date — in this case the hand moves up a scale a day at a time, pointing to the current date — when it reaches 31 it will spring back to 1.

ROSE (PINK) GOLD
A softly hued gold that contains the same materials as yellow gold but with a higher concentration of copper in the alloy. A popular colour in Europe, rose gold in watches is often seen in retro styling or in tricolour gold versions.

SAPPHIRE CRYSTAL
See 'Crystal'

SCREW CROWN
A watch winding crown which screws tightly to the case of the watch on a tube; the purpose is to ensure extreme water resistance.

SECOND
Basic unit of time (abbr. s or sec), corresponding to one 86,000th part of the mean solar day, i.e., the duration of rotation, about its own axis, of an ideal Earth describing a circle round the Sun in one year, at a constant speed and in the plane of the Equator. After the Second World War, atomic clocks became so accurate that they could demonstrate the infinitesimal irregularities (a few hundredths of a second per year) of the Earth's rotation about its own axis. It was then decided to redefine the reference standard; this was done by the 13th General Conference on Weights and Measures in 1967, in the following terms: "The second is the duration of 9,192,631,770 periods of the radiation corresponding to the transition between the two hyper-fine levels of the fundamental state of the atom of caesium 133". Conventionally, the second is subdivided into tenths, hundredths, thousandths (milliseconds), millionths (microseconds), thousand millionths (nanoseconds) and billionths (picoseconds).

SETTING (TO TIME)
Process of bringing the hands of a watch or clock to the position corresponding to the exact time.

SHOCK ABSORBER
Resilient bearing which, in a watch, is intended to take up the shocks received by the balance staff and thus protects its delicate pivots from damage.

SPLIT-SECOND
A second chronograph that runs concurrently with the first but can be stopped independently to record an intermediate time. It then catches up to run with the first hand again.

STEEL (316L)
High-grade steel with low nickel content. Often referred to as surgical steel.

STOPWATCH
Timekeeping instrument which can be used for measuring intervals of time. When this is done, the time display is partly or wholly lost until the hands are reset.

SWEEP-SECOND HAND
A long hand on a clock or watch that measures seconds by moving the space of a minute for each second. Also called sweep hand.

SYNTHETIC
TX uses PU (polyurethane) in the production of its synthetic straps. This material is abrasion resistant, flexible and chemical/acid resistant.

TACHYMETER
Common feature in chronograph watches. Measures the speed over a predefined distance. The wearer starts the chronograph when passing the starting point and stops it when passing the finish. The wearer can read the speed in units per hour off the tachometer scale.

TELEMETER
A watch function that finds the distance of an object from the wearer by measuring how long it takes sound to travel that distance. Like a tachymeter, a telemeter consists of a stopwatch function and a special scale on the dial of a chronograph.

TITANIUM
Titanium is a very light and extremely hard material. Titanium is resistant to extreme temperature variations and is well-known for its anti-allergenic properties. Titanium is often used in the fabrication of surgical devices. It is approximately half the weight of steel and is at least as strong.

TONNEAU
A watch shaped like a barrel, with two convex sides.

VICKERS
It is the standard method for measuring the hardness of metals, particularly those with extremely hard surfaces: the surface is subjected to a standard pressure for a standard length of time by means of a pyramid-shaped diamond. The diagonal of the resulting indention is measured under a microscope and the Vickers Hardness value read from a conversion table. The hardness of a watch crystal is often indicated in Vickers.

WATCH MATERIAL
Loose parts, components either for producing watches or for repairing them. In the latter case, they are often called "spare parts" or "repair material".

WATER RESISTANT
Made to prevent water from entering. Water-resistant case, watch-case whose joints are made to prevent moisture from entering.

WATERPROOF
No watch is truly waterproof, but rather water resistant. Please see the definition of water resistant for further information.

WORLD TIMER

A watch with a dial that indicates up to 24 time zones around the world, usually found on the outer edge of the face or sometimes on the bezel. Time zones around the world are indicated by major cities.