Multicore
Major Contributor
- Joined
- Dec 6, 2021
- Messages
- 3,081
- Likes
- 3,615
Jewel count was the SINAD of wrist watches. What happened to that?
Yikes! What's the biggest?
-
WANTED: Happy members who like to discuss audio and other topics related to our interest. Desire to learn and share knowledge of science required. There are many reviews of audio hardware and expert members to help answer your questions. Click here to have your audio equipment measured for free!
Watches - Are These the Best of Times or Worst of Times?
- Thread starter TheWalkman
- Start date
It's a manual, so the count will always be lower.
As a rule, I wear 46 but mostly 48. But I have bigger ones, but that can get comical. I am a sizeable guy so it fits me best. I have 2 44mm Panerais I hardly wear, I want to sell them and get one of their new 47mm.
Last edited:
My biggest is a 48, but pictures are made with a phone from 6 inches and greatly magnify the apparent size of a watch due to perspective.
Here’s is a closeup from this morning of my 39.5mm Breguet Type XX:
And here is a 48mm Concord C1 Mk II Chronograph, but taken from about four feet (using a mirror):
The Breguet actually looks a little bigger, because of perspective distortion. The Concord photo is more like how others see a watch on our wrists.
Jewel count was never the SINAD—that would be positional accuracy in seconds/day in each of five or six positions. Jewel count and metallurgy claims are more like amplifier type or the number and size of filter capacitors—not necessarily indicative of anything by itself but could be useful if appropriately applied.
All a hand-wind watch ever needed was 17 jewels—2 bearings and 2 cap jewels for the balance staff, an impulse jewel on the balance staff to rock the pallet fork, 2 jewels for the pallet fork pivots, 2 jewels on the pallet fork to engage the teeth on the escape wheel, 2 jewels on the escape wheel pivots, 2 more on the 4th wheel pivots, 2 more on the 3rd wheel pivots, and 2 on the center wheel pivots. Jewel inflation added cap jewels to the escape wheel or maybe on the barrel bridge (which is actually useful for long-term durability).
Watches intended for extreme chronometer-level accuracy would add those extra jewels to reduce train friction just that little bit more. So you might see handwind movements with 19-23 jewels, but even these were as much marketing as anything. American brands used extra jewels in railroad-grade watches which were required to be accurate to better than current chronometer standards, for example.
(Automatics add jewels in the winding train, and chronographs may add jewels in the chronograph train. My Heuer Monaco with its high-spec modular chronograph movement has 51 jewels, but an integrated chronograph would not need nearly that many. The Zenith El Primero has 31, for example.)
We really no longer have jewel inflation like we did back in the 50’s and 60’s when the USA charged a high tariff for imported watches with more than 17 jewels, incentivizing American companies to inflate jewels counts as a marketing point. My 1958 Bulova His Excellency has 23 jewels, but doesn’t really benefit much from the last 2 or 4 of them. That movement was made in Queens, NY and not subject to the tariff.
Rick “much ado about nothing” Denney
Here’s is a closeup from this morning of my 39.5mm Breguet Type XX:
And here is a 48mm Concord C1 Mk II Chronograph, but taken from about four feet (using a mirror):
The Breguet actually looks a little bigger, because of perspective distortion. The Concord photo is more like how others see a watch on our wrists.
Jewel count was never the SINAD—that would be positional accuracy in seconds/day in each of five or six positions. Jewel count and metallurgy claims are more like amplifier type or the number and size of filter capacitors—not necessarily indicative of anything by itself but could be useful if appropriately applied.
All a hand-wind watch ever needed was 17 jewels—2 bearings and 2 cap jewels for the balance staff, an impulse jewel on the balance staff to rock the pallet fork, 2 jewels for the pallet fork pivots, 2 jewels on the pallet fork to engage the teeth on the escape wheel, 2 jewels on the escape wheel pivots, 2 more on the 4th wheel pivots, 2 more on the 3rd wheel pivots, and 2 on the center wheel pivots. Jewel inflation added cap jewels to the escape wheel or maybe on the barrel bridge (which is actually useful for long-term durability).
Watches intended for extreme chronometer-level accuracy would add those extra jewels to reduce train friction just that little bit more. So you might see handwind movements with 19-23 jewels, but even these were as much marketing as anything. American brands used extra jewels in railroad-grade watches which were required to be accurate to better than current chronometer standards, for example.
(Automatics add jewels in the winding train, and chronographs may add jewels in the chronograph train. My Heuer Monaco with its high-spec modular chronograph movement has 51 jewels, but an integrated chronograph would not need nearly that many. The Zenith El Primero has 31, for example.)
We really no longer have jewel inflation like we did back in the 50’s and 60’s when the USA charged a high tariff for imported watches with more than 17 jewels, incentivizing American companies to inflate jewels counts as a marketing point. My 1958 Bulova His Excellency has 23 jewels, but doesn’t really benefit much from the last 2 or 4 of them. That movement was made in Queens, NY and not subject to the tariff.
Rick “much ado about nothing” Denney
Similar threads
