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ETA: Swiss manufacturer of mechanical movements. Although held in the highest regard, their movements are available in watches retailing under $1000 up to tens of thousands.








Elapsed time rotating bezel: A graduated rotating bezel (see rotating bezel") used to keep track of elapsed time. The bezel can be turned so the wearer can align the zero on the bezel with the watch's seconds or minutes hand. After a period of time passes, you can read the elapsed time off the bezel. This saves you having to perform the subtraction that would be necessary if you used the watch's regular dial.

Electronic (quartz) watch: A watch, usually battery-powered, which uses an electric current to cause a quartz oscillator to vibrate, normally 32,768 Hz per second but sometimes at much higher frequencies. These vibrations are processed by an integrated circuit which transforms the current into impulses. These are fed into a stepping motor which drives a train of gears to move the hands. Some quartz watches have solar cells which take light from any soul, natural or artificial, and transform them into electrical energy. Another form is the Seiko Kinetic (See Kinetic).

Escapement: Device in a mechanical movement that controls the rotation of the wheels and thus the motion of the hands.

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