Noun

Singular watch

Plural watches

watch (plural watches)

1. A portable or wearable timepiece.

   More people today carry a watch on their wrists than in their pockets.

2. A particular time period when guarding is kept.

   The second watch of the night began at midnight.

3. A person or group of people who guard.

   The watch stopped the travelers at the city gates.

4. (nautical) A group of sailors and officers aboard a ship or shore station with a common period of duty: starboard watch, port watch.
5. (nautical) A period of time on duty, usually four hours in length; the officers and crew who tend the working of a vessel during the same watch. (FM 55–501).

Derived terms

• hurricane watch
• on one's watch
• on the watch

• pocket watch
• stopwatch
• tornado watch

• wristwatch

A watch is a timepiece that is made to be worn on a person. The term now usually refers to a wristwatch, which is worn on the wrist with a strap or bracelet. In addition to the time, modern watches often display the day, date, month and year, and electronic watches may have many other functions.

Most inexpensive and medium-priced watches used mainly for timekeeping are electronic watches with quartz movements. Expensive, collectible watches valued more for their workmanship and aesthetic appeal than for simple timekeeping, often have purely mechanical movements and are powered by springs, even though mechanical movements are less accurate than more affordable quartz movements.

Before the inexpensive miniaturization that became possible in the 20th century, most watches were pocket watches, which often had covers and were carried in a pocket and attached to a watch chain or watch fob. Watches evolved in the 1600s from spring powered clocks, which appeared in the 1400s.

Parts