Fun fact #1: Each additional function a watch provides beyond that of date and time is called a ‘complication.’ Fun fact #2:  Did you know that George Washington used to carry a small portable sundial to tell the time? Fun fact #3: Pocket watches were most commonly used by men as the wrist watch, originally called a wristlet, was considered a fad worn by women. Fun fact #4: Servicemen inadvertently popularized the wrist watch during WWI when they found the pocket watch to be inconvenient and attacked them to their wrist via a leather strap. Fun fact #5: Implying a watch is special by stating it has ‘quartz movement’ is like saying a car has an engine to make the wheels go round. The term ‘quartz movement’ is derived from the piezoelectric effect of a small quartz crystal inside the watch. Basically, your watch picks up good vibrations from the quartz crystal which allows for standardization of movement to measure time- this translates into the hands of your watch accurately depicting the passage of time for you to see. Fun fact #6: Seiko was the first watch maker to develop the quartz movement.  Before watches were (and some still are) mechanical based, but this is less accurate, and may also require winding the watch. Fun fact #7: The bezel is the top portion of the encasement that holds the watch crystal over the face. Some bezels have notches or numbers used to track the passage of time. While the bezel can be accentuated with gems or diamond cut metal, as with fashion jewelry, the bezel can have a functional purpose too.  When the bezel has the basic number design, you would set the zero of the bezel to where the minute hand points and this allows the wearer to easily note at a glance how much time has passed without having to remember the original minute hand position. Another use of the bezel is seen on the Fossil watch from Alter’s Gems pictured below. This displays a tachymeter bezel; it can be used to compute a speed based on travel time or measure distance based on speed. The spacing between the marks on the tachymeter dial are therefore proportional to 1/t where t is the elapsed time, and can be differentiated from the other bezel style as the scale is logarithmic and noticeably non linear. Fun fact #8: Another common ‘complications’ to watch functions is the addition of the chronograph, which is just a stopwatch function. Double chronograph watches are known by the French term ‘rattrapante,’ which allows the user to estimate two separate events with different durations.  Another type of chronograph is the flyback, which just resets the stopwatch function back to zero with a single push of the button. The Fossil watch above as well as this Michael Kors Designer watch below show the chronograph complication on the watch face. Thank you for visiting Alter’s Gems! We hope these fast, fun facts about watches has uncomplicated the matter of buying watches, whether for yourself or for someone else.