| By this point I’m sure there are at least a few people wanting to know more about the technical aspects of the watch. Lets start with the different types of calendar mechanisms.
Most pre-modern calendar mechanisms, but not all, were of the “continuous” type. The hands, or dials, moved in a continuous motion over the course of the days, months and years. In other words there wasn’t any clear definition of the exact date. For clocks and large pocket watches this was OK.
With the advent of the wrist watch it was certain that a more precise system was needed. So the “semi-instantaneous” calendar mechanism was implemented. With the semi-instantaneous system the hands, or dials, would be stationary for most of the day. An hour or so prior to the end of the day the hands, or dials, would start to move slightly until they would jump to the next day, date, month, year, and solar system (OK, I was a bit ambitious with the last point).
