Watch

(woch.) [From A. S. waccan.] (Horol.) A pocket instrument for measuring time, in which the machinery is moved by a steel spring, coiled up, and acting by various ingenious contrivances. The spring is in-a bra box called the barrel; and is combined with a tapering ľusee, on which a connecting chain is wound by the key. The spring being fastened at one end to the barrel, and at the other end to an arbor or axle, unwinds off the fusee turning it, and keeping the W. going; while the action of the fusee accommodates itself, by its varying size, to the varied energy of the spring. (See FUSEE.) The force being thus produced, other wheels are put in motion; and time is exactly measured by the hands on the dial. II The W. manufacture consists of almost in-R numerable departments. When exeA cu ted in a more per-C fect manner, for the purpose of navigatiou, W. is termed a chronometer (q. v.). Watches are said to have been first made at Nuremberg, as early as 1477; they were originally of various shapes and must have been Fig. 678.-DECOMPOSITION very imperfect until the invention of the spiral spring as a regulator to the balance, which took place about the year 1658. The Swi trade in watches is very considerable; the works are manufactured by the female peasants in the mountainous districts, and are put together in the towns. Until time relatively recent, abt. 1850, the W. trade in the United States was limited to the importation of European movements which were afterwards cased and perfected for use. There are now several establishments, the most important of which are those at Waltham, Ma ., and Elgin, Illinois, engaged in constructing and arranging all the parts of aW. The utmost simplicity is introduced in the number and arrangement of the pieces of the American W., the number of which has been reduced from 800 or more, employed in English fusee W., to about 730. Every piece maybe fitted indiscriminately with any of the others, the jewelled holes and pivots only excepted. These are recorded at the factory with the number of each watch, so that they can always be duplicated with certainty of perfect fit by sending the number and name of the piece to the factory.-(Navig.) It denotes the space of time during which one division of the ship's crew remains upon deck to keep W., the crew being generally divided into two, or in large ships, into three parts, for this purpose. The watches are termed starboard and larboard watches. The period of time called a W. is four hours, the reckoning beginning at noon or midnight. There are also what are called dog-watches, which last only two hours, and are formed by the division of the W.bet. four and eight P. M. into two parts, to break the constant recurrence of three watches at the same hours.To set the W., is to appoint that division of the crew which is to enter on the W.-To relieve the W., is to relieve those on duty, by changing the W. [s. 951]