WATCH COMPONENTS

The face of the watch that contains the numbers or symbols that allow you to tell the time. 

Safely protected inside the case is the watch movement. This is made up of hundreds of moving parts, and can either be quartz, using battery power to keep it running, or mechanical, requiring winding to provide power for watch operation. In either case, it is the movement that keeps time and moves the watch hands accordingly.

The housing for the dial and the watch mechanism itself, often stainless-steel but can be made from precious metals too.

The transparent cover over the dial, often called a watch glass, it protects the hands and mechanism underneath. Modern watches usually use sapphire crystal for this. 

surrounding the crystal, the bezel forms the upper part of the case, but is often in a contrasting material. Some watches feature bezels that rotate to add functionality such as time zones. 

There are usually two hands, one for hours and one for minutes. The longer one marks minutes, the shorter one shows hours. Some watches such as chronographs may have a second hand as well as additional smaller hands for other functions such as a stopwatch or timer.

The knurled knob on the side of the watch case. This is used to adjust the time, and on mechanical movement watches, wind the mechanism too.

The two lugs are where the watchstrap attaches to the watch case using sprung metal bars.

The strap or buckle is the way you secure the watch to your wrist. Leather and stainless-steel options are common, but nylon, rubber and other materials may be used for some situations.

Quartz watches require a battery to keep them powered and operating. This will need to be replaced regularly during ownership.