The Dial and Hands should be sufficiently in contrast one to the other to show the time at a glance. Dials are sometimes made of gold or silver, but these are not so distinctly seen as white enamelled dials, with black figures or numerals, and dark blue steel hands; the enamelled faces, although, perhaps, more brittle than gold or silver dials, are therefore in greatest request. Up to a comparatively recent date the seconds' hand was placed upon the level face of the watch, but sunk seconds are now everywhere in use, even in the cheaper sorts of watches. The chief objection taken to the sunk seconds is that it disfigures the dial by breaking the uniformity of the numeral letters, the VI being of course obliterated to make room for it, but this obliteration seems of smaller consequence than the confusion which may arise from the use of longer seconds' hands and their being at any time mistaken for that of the hour or minute.
The Jewelling of a watch is an important part of its manufacture, inasmuch as it is by means of jewels that durability is chiefly secured. Watch pivots would rapidly wear out the metal in those parts in which there is continual friction, and jewelling has therefore become general. The watch-maker uses for his best watches a peculiarly hard kind of ruby, which has been known to withstand the wear and tear of the best part of a century without showing symptoms of yielding, whereas inferior jewels are perhaps scarcely so hard as the best tempered metal.
The Frame, usually of brass gilt, sustains both ends of each axis, and is now principally designed to fit a full-plate movement or a three-quarter-plate movement. The former is undoubtedly the more simple construction, but with considerable disadvantage in taking to pieces the watch and putting it together again when repairs are needed. The examination of the escapement in a full-plate watch, and the cleaning, or altering, or oiling which may be needed, cannot be done without taking the whole movement to pieces. The three-quarter-plate movement is not only preferable on account of its superiority in respect to solidity, and the economy of labour in its manufacture, but from its being flatter than the full-plate watch, and allowing of repairs being more easily made.
The Watch-case, which used to be of various materials, such as tortoiseshell, pinchbeck, or one of the precious metals, is now almost universally of gold or silver. Silver cases are invariably of the standard required by the law and stamped accordingly; gold cases vary in fineness,—some being made and stamped of 9 carat gold, but the best for wear, and as such preferred by the best makers, are of 18 carats, and are stamped as such with the hall mark, usually in three or four places,—on the bow, the pendant, and the inside of the case. Much depends upon the care with which this part of a watch is finished, for an ill-fitting case admits dust which renders frequent cleaning necessary, and prevents accurate time-keeping. After the casemaker has constructed the case it has to pass through several hands before it is completed,—for instance, it is one man's work to fit the works to the case by making the joint at the 12 o'clock and the bolt at 6 o'clock, and to supply the wheels to propel the hands; it is another's to perform the part of engine turner, and to mark the case with those curiously intricate lines whose wonderful precision cannot be secured by mere hand-work, but by a combination of mechanical and human labour; another's to finish the joints, or, as the uninitiate would perhaps call them, the hinges; and last of all the fitter of the case with springs, and polisher to give the necessary finish. In the same way has each part of the mechanism of the interior passed through a series of workmen's hands. Nearly every wheel and pinion has been separately made by men whose entire time is given to the perfecting of their several branches of labour, the subdivisions of which and their ramifications would need many lengthy chapters of description, to do them justice. The escapement is of itself a distinct department requiring a number of co-operating hands, from those which first shape the metal to the balance-maker working in brass, steel, or gold, and the final adjustment of the escapement-maker. The chain, the spring, the jewelling, the brass-work, the engraving, the gilding, have each their separate history, some of them being brought from one district and some from another, to be put together in the watch manufactory, which is finally to produce them unitedly as an entire watch. Division of labour provides a larger amount of skilled work, and a more satisfactory result, than any other method. The workman whose entire life is spent in making the head of a pin or in fixing it on, will do his work better than the man, however clever he may be, who should attempt to make the whole pin; and not only is the work thus better done, but it is done by combination much more expeditiously and cheaply. All that the watch-manufacturer can do by way of choosing his materials is, however, of course, but antecedent to his own work of actual construction, of finishing, examining, and regulating. He is to the watch what the architect is to a house; the latter is none the less the rearer of the structure because he did not himself make the bricks, or saw the timber, or mix the mortar. Each subordinate brings certain materials to the hand of the constructor, and he combines them, and gives them their places, he turns them into shape and produces them as a perfect whole. So the watch-manufacturer, instead of going himself back through the various stages of work which in Nuremberg-egg time had, perhaps, all to be done by one pair of hands, chooses, adapts, combines the labours of hundreds of busy collaborateurs, all of whom have made portions and pieces,—he alone makes the Watch.
Complicated Watches are so called because besides the ordinary watch movement they possess other mechanism more or less complicated, by means of which they can indicate special portions of time,—as for instance the Chronograph, which marks on its dial the fifth of a second; the Quarter, and Half-Quarter, and Minute Repeaters, which furnish the time in the dark to within a minute, and are invaluable to invalids and blind persons; the Clock-Watch, which strikes the hours even in the pocket; the Clock-Watch Repeater, which strikes and repeats; the Independent split Centre Seconds, and Fifth Seconds Watch, which shows (by comparing the one with the other) the lapse of time to the fifth of a second; the Perpetual Calendar Watch, which shows the day of the week and of the month, the name of the month, the phases of the moon, &c.; the Perpetual Calendar Repeating Watch, which in addition to the calendar shows by a repeater the hour, quarter, and minute; and the Meridian Watch, which shows the time of day in any given number of places in any part of the world. A few words descriptive of the peculiarities of each of the above complicated watches will be necessary here, and observing the sequence as above, the following brief particulars will perhaps be sufficient for ordinary reference, or for being kept in memory.
The Chronograph is undoubtedly the most perfect instrument yet invented for marking the exact time occupied by certain rapid movements or events or performances,—and is therefore well adapted for astronomical and medical observations, for timing machinery, for indicating the speed of a race, and of similar quick events even to the tenth of a second. It consists of an ordinary quick train lever movement on a scale sufficiently large to carry the hands for an 8-inch dial. The peculiar feature of the chronograph is its second hand, which is double, consisting of two distinct hands,—the one lying over the other. The lower of the two is furnished at the tip with a small reservoir having an extremely small orifice below; over this orifice the point of the upper hand is bent so as to fall exactly upon the puncture, and to convey through it, as with a pen, the ink held in the reservoir. The mode of operating with the chronograph at a race has been thus described. 'The chronograph is held firmly in the left hand of the operator, who watches the starters, but need not trouble himself to keep at the same time an eye upon the dial. At the moment of the start he presses the finger or thumb of his right hand gently upon the button of the pendant, and instantly a black dot is deposited on the dial, and—the operator being ready to touch the button at the precise moment of the finish, and thus to complete what we may call the chronogram of the event—the exact length of the race is registered, even to a decimal fraction of a second, and an indisputable record written by the instrument itself in black and white. The chronograph, it should be mentioned is, apart from its chronographic mechanism, an excellent time-keeper, and may be worn as an ordinary watch, being the same size as a gentleman's lever watch.
Repeating Watches are now made so as to require no key. They are constructed with a lever or chronometer escapement, and are known according to their method of repeating,—the ordinary Repeater strikes the hours and quarters,—the Half-quarter Repeater strikes the hours, quarters, and half-quarters,—the Minute Repeater strikes hours, quarters, and minutes. The first tells the time in the dark or to the blind person to within a quarter of an hour, the second tells it within seven minutes and a half, the third tells it to the minute.
The Clock Watch and Clock Repeating Watch are also made so as to need no key. They strike the hours and quarters while being worn in the pocket, and have not only the two trains of wheels for going and striking as in a clock, but a third train provided for repeating purposes. Both mainsprings are wound up by the same winder by a forward and backward action of the pendant. They are constructed with either Lever, Duplex, or Chronometer Escapements, and some are provided with compensation balances adjusted to act equally at extremes of temperature.
The Independent Centre Seconds Watch is peculiarly adapted for the use of the medical profession. By means of its two trains it carries, besides the ordinary hands denoting hours, minutes, and seconds, a long seconds hand which can be stopped without stopping the watch. It is made with a stem winder, and therefore requires no key.