Automatic Movement Watches

Automatic Movement Watches

Definition

” A rotating weight segment called rotor, which moves by the motions of the watch and which causes the – automatically –self-winding of the movement “

The generally accepted design principle is that of the central rotor, by which some movements use a micro-rotor. There exists unidirectional and also bi-directional winding mechanisms.

History

Abraham-Louis Perrelet – considered the inventor of the automatic winding at pocket watches. In the late 1920’s, when the wristwatch was preparing for its triumph, the Englishman John Harwood applied this automatic winding concept to wristwatches. Wristwatches make automatic winding more useful. That’s because our arm movements deliver the required amount of kinetic energy, unlike comparably static pocket watches.

The automatic wristwatch concept came to the mass market when Rolex presented its “perpetual” winding in 1931. Starting with this innovation made the manual winding entirely unnecessary. Over the next 40 years, nearly every watch manufacturer introduced their own automatic winding mechanism, and steal remain  the dominant system today for almost all luxury watches.