Pocket watches are commonly regarded as being one of two types: the open faced watch or the hunter cased watch (also called savonette from the French). The latter has a hinged front cover that protects the face and crystal of the watch. Since the separate dial that marks the passage of seconds is traditionally placed closest to the six o'clock position, this means usually the stem (or pendant) of an open faced pocket watch is set at its twelve o'clock position. The hunter's stem is placed most commonly at the three o'clock position. When read, the open faced is held with the stem straight up and the hunter is read by turning the watch 90° with the stem pointing to the right.
Modern manufacturers of pocket watches, especially those watches with a quartz movement, are not bound by tradition when regarding the orientation of movements and the cases they are inserted into (open-faced or hunter).Sometimes, what appears to be a mechanism intended for use in a wristwatch is used as the mechanism for a pocket watch. |
