In this country the key task for a certified watchmaker is to maintain fine mechanical watches.
Last year mechanical watches accounted for 70% of the value of Swiss watch exports.
One hopes that as more mechanical watches become accessible women buyers will learn to appreciate their superior properties.
Think made-to-measure and bespoke suits, crocodile suede jackets, silk ties, mechanical watches that cost more than an Aston Martin.
Before long Omega, the reigning Swiss brand, was melting down its gold mechanical watches so it could sell the metal.
The brand would no longer produce mechanical watches, but only its interesting quartz-based timepieces that used special interfaces and display systems.
This is because the silicon in question is a spiral designed to take the place of the balance spring in mechanical watches.
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Mechanical watches still rely on tiny spirals, invented by the Dutch scientist Christian Huygens in 1675, which, at least theoretically, provide perfectly isochronic oscillations.
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Nowadays the fun little plastic Swatch is taking a beating, but the company is doing just fine, thanks to the mechanical watches Swatch rescued.
Mechanical watches, bespoke shoes and lapels carry great significance.
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Phosphor Reveal marks the world's first mechanical digital watches utilizing its proprietary Micro-Magnetic Mechanical DigitalTM (M3D) technology.
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Perhaps the biggest news was women's watches with mechanical movements and serious complications like tourbillons and moonphases.
In the 1970s battery-powered quartz watches made mechanical ones functionally obsolete.
Until now, most ladies timepieces have been quartz or simply sized-down mechanical men's watches, but women were a major focus for several brands at the show.
Inside the watches are Swiss automatic mechanical movements.
More complicated or better decorated mechanical movements are available in many other watches, but certainly not all.
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Under his leadership, Ulysse Nardin rose once more to the top of the mechanical watchmaking sector, with numerous innovations such as the first astronomical wrist watches.
The watches have a dial aperture at the position of the balance wheel to show that the movement inside is mechanical.
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