How The Power Reserve Of A Watch Works And How It Influences Its Accuracy - Luxury Watch Wholesalers
The power reserve of a watch is a basic concept in mechanical watches. The power reserve allows a watch to continue running without the need to perceive any movement, marks its autonomy and is based on a very complex and precise mechanism.
On this occasion we analyze how the power reserve of a watch works and how it affects the mechanism.
How does the power reserve mechanism of a watch work?
For a wind-up watch to work without movement, a mechanism is necessary that seems simple, but is actually very complex.
When we wind a watch, what we do is compress a spiral-shaped spring, this piece becomes tense, achieving what we know as energy capital, that is, a remnant of energy that is dosed little by little. This stored energy is gradually released as the spring unwinds.
Many watches have a brand indicator, in these cases, the dial has an indicator that shows the charge available to the mechanism. Depending on the model, the power reserve may be higher or lower.
The power reserve is one of the features most appreciated by lovers of haute horlogerie. Obviously, manufacturing a piece with a power reserve is something complex in itself, however, being able to have several days of running time is a characteristic that shows that the mechanism that incorporates the piece is extremely precise.
What happens if the clock runs out of wind
Sometimes wind-up watches stop because the power reserve runs out. Watchmaking is based on the most absolute precision, that is why we must take care of all the details that surround the piece, if a watch is left without winding for a few minutes or a few hours, the mechanism will not suffer any damage, however, if a mechanism sits idle for months, the movement is likely to lose some accuracy.
It is true that with the movement the parts wear out and the lubricant also has a long-term influence, but for a watchmaking movement, inactivity is much more harmful than the movement.
The movement boxes help keep the mechanism running even if we don't have it on our wrist. In this link you can learn more tricks to keep your automatic watches in perfect condition.
The commercial watches with the most power reserve
As we said, the power reserve is a very reliable indicator of the quality of a mechanism, these are some of the commercial watches with the highest power reserves.
IWC Large Pilot's Watch