Movements
Our watches are either equipped with precision quartz movements or mechanical movements. Quartz movements are supplied with energy by a battery. Within mechanical movements one can differentiate between handwinding movements and automatic movements. Handwinding movements have to be wound by hand in order to be started.
Automatic movements are – as their name indicates – wound automatically by a rotor even though they can often be wound manually as well. Please bear in mind that a watch with a mechanical movement cannot reach the accuracy of a quartz movement due to its construction. This especially applies if the watch is exposed to extreme temperature fluctuations or if the watch – in the case of an automatic watch – is not regularly worn. In some cases there is still a combination of both systems: if so, the energy of the rotor is used to charge the rechargeable battery of a quartz movement instead of tensioning the spring of the movement. These movements are also known as Automatic Power Generation Systems.