Inside and outside: both matter when it comes to pocket watches. While what's inside the case determines the quality of the timepiece, the case itself often determines the style of the watch and its appeal. As pocket watches enjoy a resurgence as fashion accents, it helps to understand the different styles of cases and their benefits. These are the most common styles of watches and cases available today.
Open Face
Open face pocket watch styles are generally the least expensive styles available, but the materials and quality of the watch can impact the price. Open face timepieces have no outer case at all, leaving the crystal unprotected from scratches and dust. Today's heavy-duty glass formulas and scratch-resistant coatings make open-face pocket watches far more practical than in the past. A few designers have taken the open face concept to the extreme and created pocket watches with transparent fronts and backs, revealing the inner workings in their entirety.
Hunter Cases
By far the most common, the hunter case is a pocket watch with a hinged front cover that protects the watch crystal and face from dust and scratches. The cover is usually gold, silver or another precious metal, and it stays closed with a pressure clasp or latch. The latch is most often set at the top of the watch face, but the cover may also open from the bottom or either side. Hunter cases often feature beautiful engraving and chasing, or are inset with gemstones or inlaid with enamel. Modern watches often feature a transparent case cover made of boron silica glass, which resists scratches and allows the watch face to be seen with the cover closed. Some designers use boron silica insets to reveal only part of the face through the case.
Double Hunter Case
Often, pocket watch designers infuse both the front and back of the watch with a transparent crystal, revealing the inner workings and mechanics from the back. These watches often feature a double-hinged case that opens either the back or the front to allow a view of the inner gears from the back and the watch face from the front.
Fashion Timepieces
The design of these timepieces allows for many different kinds of fashion and design elements. Some of the cleverest include cutouts in the watch case that reveal parts of the face or the back of the watch. Skeleton pocket watches have no watch face at all. Instead, the watch crystal, both front and back, allows the viewer to see through the inner workings of the watch and watch the movements of the inner gears. Some of the more elaborate include transparent double hunter covers that protect the inner crystals while allowing the ingenious inner workings to show through clearly.
Pocket watches aren't a relic of the past. Artists and watchmakers of today continue improving and building on hundreds of years of tradition to create beautiful and useful masterpieces of mechanical engineering. Fans of these timepieces can buy wholesale watches and one-of-a-kind jewelry online at prices they can't find in local stores.
Author Resource:
Chris Robertson is an author of Majon International, one of the world's MOST popular internet marketing companies on the web.
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