Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie

Mechanical watch

Mechanical watch

A watch is composed of three essential parts :

1. The movement is the set of mechanisms serving to indicate the hour, minutes, seconds, fractions of a second, date…


2. The dial and hands are the organs serving to display the time


3. The case protects the watch movement. Composed of the middle, bezel, glass and back, it gives the watch its style and personality.

A simple mechanical movement generally comprises some 130 parts (a part being any individually-made element, e.g. a wheel is a separate part to a pinion.

Movement size is measured in millimetres. Watchmakers also measure in lines where one line ("') equals 2.255 mm.