• Question: Hello, the first person to answer this question will get a vote(a bit unfair, but still). How are watches made?

    Asked by sebadam to Mike, Pip, Tianfu, Tim, Tom on 3 Jul 2012.
    • Photo: Tim Stephens

      Tim Stephens answered on 3 Jul 2012:

      Do you mean a digital watch or an analogue watch?
      A digital watch is just a small electronic circuit. The time-keeping is a small quartz crystal (which is why you see quartz watches). The crystal vibrates when electricity is applied and the circuit counts the vibrations to measure out the seconds. The time is then displayed on the front with hands or on a liquid crystal display.

      An analogue watch has a tiny rotary pendulum and a complicated array of gears. The miniature pendulum vibrates as it’s driven by the winding mechanism, which in turn moves the gears in the rest of the watch bit-by-bit to turn the hands on the face.

    • Photo: Tom Lister

      Tom Lister answered on 3 Jul 2012:

      But Tim didn’t say how, only what they are made from. They are generally put together by robots in factories, often in China.

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