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.

On average a simple mechanical watch comprises 130 parts (1 part = any individually made part, i.e. a wheel = 2 parts).