The Concept and Evolution of Watches from the Perspective of Operation: The Crown

Operating a watch requires some kind of operation. Though the frequency may vary, regular time setting, calendar correction, and winding are all performed using the crown. It is better for the operation to be easy, and it is also better for it to not get in the way when not in use. Furthermore, as the usage environment changes, the criteria for "ease of operation" and expectations of how to operate it will likely change as well. Therefore, we would like to focus on the crown, the most basic operating system in a watch, and its connection to the concept of the watch.

A variety of operations can be performed with just one turn of the crown

　The most basic operating system is the crown, which is found on most mechanical watches and performs various functions by combining pushing and pulling along the axis and rotating.

　Details vary depending on the movement, so let's take the ETA2836-2, a three-hand movement with a day-date display, as an example. With the crown pushed in or unscrewed, turning the crown clockwise winds the mainspring. Pulling the crown out one notch and turning it clockwise allows you to adjust the date, and turning it counterclockwise allows you to adjust the day of the week. Pulling it out another notch moves the minute and hour hands in unison, allowing you to adjust the time.

　The ETA2836-2 was a type in which settings were selected by the crown position and adjusted by actually turning it, but there are also movements that are adjusted by pulling out or pushing the crown in. Omega's famous 1960s Cal. 565 had the date quick-set by pulling out the crown, and Seiko's world-first mass-produced automatic chronograph Cal. 6139 had the date and day of the week adjusted by pushing the crown in.

　Another major function assigned to the crown is the independent adjustment of the second time zone. A variety of functions are realized through a simple combination of axial movement and rotation of the crown, and you can feel the accumulation of improvements.

Crown Design Determined by Special Purposes

　This is not limited to watches; when tools are limited in their use and adapted to specific environments, they often evolve to adapt to those environments. Pilot watches are an example of such special evolution. In the past, aircraft pilots wore thick gloves to keep warm in unheated cockpits. To accommodate this, pilot watches were designed with large, clearly contoured crowns that made them easy to operate even while wearing gloves.

　In particular, wristwatches for German military pilots featured distinctive onion-shaped and diamond-shaped crowns, and the IWC Big Pilot's Watch 43 is an example that continues this tradition of diamond-shaped crowns.

　However, this model and its distinctive crown do not technically originate from a watch worn by aircraft pilots. The ancestor of today's Big Pilot's Watches, the Big Pilot's Watch 52T.SC, was a military observation watch for officers at air force bases, created to maintain the reference time of each pilot's wristwatch. High precision was required for this purpose, and the watch was equipped with a large pocket watch movement with accuracy compensation in six positions and at three temperatures. With a case diameter of 55mm and a thickness of 16.5mm, the watch truly lives up to its name: "Big."

　As such, the Big Pilot's Watches of the time were not designed for use in the air, but they did have stringent requirements for cold weather performance down to -20°C, and as reference timepieces they needed to be as accurate as possible, so they featured large diamond-shaped crowns that were easy to operate with or without gloves.

　The current Big Pilot's Watch 43 retains the "big" feel reminiscent of the original model, its pure instrumental feel with excellent visibility, and its iconic crown design, but has been resized to a case diameter of 43mm to suit modern everyday use.

Watches with Names Based on Their Crown Features

　There is also a model named after the large crown adopted for pilots, such as the Oris Big Crown Pointer Date. It is not difficult to imagine that the name was chosen because the crown was significantly larger than competing models at the time of its release, and its ease of operation was thought to be a selling point.

　Considering that the name Big Crown and the large crown remain iconic to this day, it is clear that this distinctive design was an important concept that was supported by professionals and many users at the time.