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Homework answers / question archive / Group 2 Report criteria Introduction About watches and type of watches The different between the material watches and glass watches

Group 2 Report criteria Introduction About watches and type of watches The different between the material watches and glass watches

Mechanical Engineering

Group 2 Report criteria Introduction About watches and type of watches The different between the material watches and glass watches. • The essential components assembled each watch. Specify your objectives and aims to achieve in this report. Discussion: describe the benefits of each material mentioned in part (a) and the role they play. mention their mechanical and physical properties for each material mention about its economic, safety, repair and maintenance and recyclability. Conclusion: . Based on above points, mention which materials you think is more suitable and why?
 

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OUTLINE

 

I. INTRODUCTION

                1. Introduction, history and types of watches

                2. Different watch materials and watch glasses

                3. Essential components of watches

                4. Aims of the report

II. DISCUSSION

                1. Working mechanisms of watches

                2. Physical and mechanical properties of each materials

                3. Benefits associated with each materials

                4. Economy of watch materials

                5. Economy of watch glasses

                6. Safety of above materials

                7. Repair and maintenance of watches

                8. Recyclability of watch materials and glasses

III. CONCLUSION

                1. Brief summary of study

                2. Selection of suitable watch material

                3. Selection of suitable watch glass

                4. Conclusion statement

IV. REFERENCES

INTRODUCTION

A watch is a portable clock that is meant to be worn or carried by a person. A wristwatch is a timepiece that is worn around the wrist and is connected to the wrist by a watch strap or other form of bracelets, such as metal bands, leather straps, or any other form of a bracelet. Although wristwatches are now being replaced by electronic devices, they still provide benefits in terms of convenience, efficiency and time savings. The Pomander Watch was the very first watch ever made. It was designed by Peter Henlein (1485–1542) and is the world's oldest mechanical watch. Since then, mechanical watches have evolved, become more sophisticated, and are frequently used as a symbol of royalty and luxury. After then, the mechanical watch business dominated the watch business for more than a century. All wonderful things, unfortunately, must come to an end. Seiko releases the first quartz watch in 1969. Quartz watches are the most accurate wristwatches on the market, and they are significantly less expensive to manufacture than mechanical watches. This sparked the quartz revolution, which ended the mechanical wristwatch's supremacy [1].

Regardless of the operating mechanism, all wristwatches include a casing and a watch glass. The frequently used materials for watches are ceramics, titanium, steel, stainless steel, etc. whereas the materials used for glass watches are sapphire, mineral and plastic glass. The watch materials are used to house and protect the watch mechanics while the watch glass functions to protect the dial and watch movement. The materials used in watches are critical to their overall longevity. It determines if a watch can be worn in situations with significant temperature variations or in locations that are bumpy and may cause scratches on the watch. Each of these materials has advantages over the others, but they also have drawbacks. When selecting a suitable wristwatch, it's also vital to consider the watch's material to ensure that it supports your lifestyle and your tastes in terms of features.

For quartz watches, the integrated circuit is the heart of watch mechanics. The integrated circuit is powered by a battery and controls quartz crystal, motor and frequency regulator.  The motor output is passed through a gear train which controls the motion of the analog display on the watch dial. Mechanical watches, on the other hand, are powered by a mainspring that is wound manually or automatically via a crown, which is a knob-like component usually at the side of the watch case. The power from the mainspring is transmitted through the gear train to the watch dial while the escapement and oscillating balance absorbs shock and controls the rate of energy loss from the mainspring [2] which is further discussed in the upcoming section. Besides the casing, watch mechanics, glass, and the dial, the other components of the watch are the strap, lugs, hands and bezel. The watch strap secures the watch case to your wrist. The watch case and the strap are connected to each other by lugs. Watch hands are the most important in analog watches as the three hands point at the hour, minute, and second features. The bezel maintains the glass in place and also functions as a tachymeter [3]. 

The purpose of this report is to investigate the many types of watches, their components, working mechanisms, materials, and glasses used in watches, as well as their characteristics (physical and mechanical). It also emphasizes watch materials and glasses' economy, safety, repair and maintenance, and recyclability. The report also emphasizes the selection of optimum material and glass for the watch, based on the study. As a whole, this study will help in obtaining insights into mechanisms, material science, economy of watches, etc.

DISCUSSION

Let’s start the discussion by looking at the detail of how the quartz and mechanical watches work. Quartz watches rely on a battery to power an electronic oscillator that regulates the watch's movement. When exposed to the charge, the watch battery transmits electricity through a piece of quartz that has been precisely cut to vibrate at a particular frequency. This frequency is so accurate that watchmakers have calculated that the quartz vibrates 32,768 times each second. These vibrations are then transferred to a stepping motor, which is a tiny device that has been designed to count the number of vibrations and send a signal to an amplifier after it has counted precisely 32,768 vibrations and sends a signal to move the hands [4]. On the other hand, a mechanical watch is powered by a mainspring that must be wound manually or by a self-winding mechanism on a regular basis. The balancing wheel, a weighted wheel that oscillates back and forth at a steady rate, is powered by its force, which is transmitted by a set of gears. With each swing of the balance wheel, an escapement allows the watch's wheels to move forward a tiny amount, pushing the watch's hands ahead at a steady rate. The escapement is responsible for the 'ticking' sound heard when a mechanical watch is turned on [5].

In order to choose the material and glass for the watches, the mechanical and physical properties of each material need to be thoroughly discussed along with the associated benefits provided by the materials. Beginning with the ceramic, being a brittle material, ceramics have weak impact strength, low yielding and have a greater possibility of brittle fracture due to the presence of microcracks. However, they have high compressive strength, high melting point and low coefficient of thermal expansion [6]. Titanium is characterized by high tensile strength as compared to steel. Furthermore, it is lightweight and has higher flexibility due to the lower Young’s modulus of elasticity than steel. Its melting point is around 1600-1700 ? which is lower than that of ceramics [7]. In general, steel and stainless steel has lower strength than titanium with higher Young’s modulus of elasticity which makes them less flexible. However, the processibility of steels is better than that of titanium. As for sapphire glass, this glass has a better wear and scratch resistance, a high working temperature of around 1800 °C, is chemically inert, and has a high strength [8]. Mineral glasses are made out of regular glass crystals that have been treated with heat or chemicals to make them more scratch-resistant than they would be otherwise [9]. Further, they are less reflective than sapphire and are quite impact-resistant. The Mohs hardness of mineral glass is about 5 [10].  Plastic glass is characterized by impact resistance and the light scratches on these glasses can be easily removed by polishing. It is quite resilient in the sense that it does not readily break due to its flexibility.

As can be observed from the qualities of various watch materials and glasses, each has its own set of advantages and disadvantages. For example, titanium has higher strength and lighter weight than stainless steel, yet titanium is more complex to manufacture and has weak resistance to scratch due to its lower hardness than stainless steel. However, utilizing stainless steel as a watch material has the advantage of being easier to manufacture than titanium and lowering the cost of stainless steel, which will be addressed more in the next section. Similarly in the case of watch glasses, sapphire has the benefit of high quality and higher scratch resistance. Mineral glass benefits the cheaper cost than sapphire while plastic glass provides the benefit of being the cheapest glass. Similarly, as previously stated by their characteristics, utilizing various materials and glasses in the watch has its own set of advantages.

Now discussing the economic aspects of each material, ceramic watches are generally more expensive owing to the purity of the ceramic material and the difficulties in sintering them. However, because the materials used are not very valuable, it is unlikely to cost more than a gold or platinum watch but is still expensive than stainless steel and sometimes even titanium watches. The raw ingredients for ceramic components are inexpensive, but the manufacturing process is costly which makes the ceramic watches expensive [11]. In addition, adding color to the ceramic alloys raises the price of the watch even more. For the case of manufacturing titanium watches, one will require specialized equipment as titanium material can’t be processed using the same machinery as used for steel. This makes titanium watches costlier [12]. Stainless steel is basically a low-cost material since it isn't as scarce as titanium and the production procedure for stainless steel watches is simpler. Hence, stainless steel watches provide good quality at a lower cost. Steel watches are the cheapest among the mentioned materials as steel is an intrinsically cheaper material and has an easy manufacturing process.

As for the watch glasses, sapphire glasses are the most expensive as the instruments required to cut and polish the extremely tough sapphire crystals are very costly. Sapphire is commonly seen in luxury watches. While they might be made of genuine sapphire, they're more likely to be fashioned of a synthetic variant. The synthetic version is made out of crystallized aluminum oxide, which is extremely similar to the genuine article in terms of composition but lacks color and greater economic worth [9]. Mineral watch glasses are relatively cheaper than sapphire glasses but costlier than plastic watch glasses. Plastic watch glasses are the least expensive as they are relatively softer, flexible and of lower quality [13]. These are more commonly used in children's watches due to their low cost and durability, as those watches are made to be cheaper and durable enough to just withstand regular wear. There is a downside to using it, much like any kind of plastic, it’s easy to scratch [9].

Due to the high hardness and strength of ceramic material, these watches are often safe from scratch and high-temperature exposure. However, they can’t resist high pressure and hence they are often combined with tougher materials for their greater safety. Titanium is not scratch resistant by nature, however, the natural oxidation of the metal makes minor scratches less obvious over time. As mentioned earlier, titanium has greater strength than steel and provides higher resistance to corrosion and body sweat which makes it a relatively safer material. Stainless steel is very resistant to rust and not easily affected by moisture but steel watches are very less resistant to corrosion. This makes steel watches relatively less safe than other materials [12].

Despite the advantages of different materials used in watches, all watches require certain repair and maintenance. Mechanical watches have more individual parts (more than 180 parts) and hence chances of malfunctioning are higher. Due to a large number of moving parts, it might wear out, resulting in time loss or gain due to a lack of oil; requiring the parts to be lubricated every 4 or 5 years. When it comes to quartz watches, battery replacement is a common repair if the watch stops working. When the buttons or pushers on quartz watches cease operating correctly, another issue might occur. Dust and debris can build around the tiny spring that permits the pushers to do their job, therefore this is typically a wear and tear issue. The springs will very certainly need to be replaced if thorough service is necessary. In general, the seals and gaskets should be replaced on time to ensure water resistance. Other watch repair and maintenance options include repairing scratched glass, repairing a worn or broken bracelet, cleaning the case and bracelet, and de-magnetizing the watch [14].

Titanium is a 100% recyclable eco-metal [15] and is considered the most bio-compatible metal. Similarly, stainless steel and steel materials can be recycled indefinitely without degrading their quality. However, ceramics are less recyclable. As stated earlier, ceramics are characterized by a high melting point and hence they can’t be melted down at most waste facilities [16].  As for watch glasses, Sapphire glass is a material that may be recycled several times, mineral glass is 100% recyclable, however, acrylic plastic glass requires specialized handling and recycling equipment, making it one of the least recycled glass types [17] [18].

 

 

CONCLUSION

The above sections explored the different types of watch materials and glasses along with their economy, safety, recyclability, properties, etc. Different materials like ceramics, titanium, steel, stainless steel, etc. are frequently used as watch materials. Similarly, it was seen that the watch glass included the use of sapphire glass, mineral glass, ordinary glass, plastic glass, etc. The pros and cons of all different types of materials were also discussed along with the basic problems that might arise on the mechanical and quartz watches and the common type of servicing done on them.

Ceramic as a watch material is perceived as increasing the expense of the watch, and the issue of recyclability of ceramics does not make it an ideal watch material. Similarly, titanium as a recyclable material poses great potential as a material in watch however, due to its high cost, it isn’t affordable by everyone. Still, titanium watches can be an excellent option for the wealthy. Steel, on the other hand, is the cheapest among the different watch materials though it is a poor choice due to its lower resistance to corrosion. This problem can be solved by using stainless steel instead of steel to obtain resistance to corrosion and moisture although the price is higher than steel watch. However, the price is still affordable in comparison to the titanium and ceramic watches. Furthermore, stainless steel possesses a high degree of recyclability and reusability, hence, making it an ideal choice from the environmental view. Considering the pros and cons of all the above-mentioned watch materials, stainless steel is more suitable for the watch from a financial as well as environmental point in my view.

Regarding different types of the watch glass, sapphire glass, although being the best in terms of quality, durability, etc., doesn’t seem suitable to be used as watch glass due to its higher cost which doesn’t make it affordable to everyone. The problem of high cost can be removed with the use of plastic glass. However, plastic glass is characterized by low quality, lower resistance to scratch, and difficulty in recycling. So, the cheaper plastic glass doesn’t seem suitable to be used in the watches. Furthermore, ordinary glass is of poor quality, quickly scratched in a short period of time, and ineffective for lengthy periods of time, making it unsuitable for use as a glass watch. As stated earlier, mineral glass is cheaper than sapphire glass and is 100% recyclable. Although mineral glass does not have a remarkable scratch resistance, it is stronger than plastic glass, and scratches on it can be quickly polished. Furthermore, the strength of mineral glass can be still increased by the application of paintings. Hence, in my view, all these remarkable features of mineral glass, as opposed to other types of glass watch, make it more suitable glass for watches.

Hence, after exploring different types of materials used for manufacturing watches and the glasses used on them, I will prefer the use of stainless steel as the appropriate watch material and mineral glass as the suitable watch glass. However, this choice may differ according to the lifestyle and the taste of the user.