But before people could purchase inexpensive quartz watches in the 20th century, most men owned pocket watches, which often had covers. They carried them in a vest pocket, attached to a watch chain and fob. 

A watch movement is the mechanism that measures the passage of time and displays the current time, plus the date, and sometimes month and day. They can be entirely mechanical, entirely electronic, or a combination of of the two. Most of today’s watches have electronic movements, with mechanical hands on the face of the watch to tell the time. These movements employ an escapement mechanism to control and limit the unwinding of the spring, converting what would otherwise be a simple unwinding, into a controlled and periodic energy release. They also employ a balance wheel which includes a hairspring to control motion of the gear system of the watch much like a pendulum in a clock.

A self-winding or automatic mechanism is one that rewinds the mainspring of a mechanical movement by the natural motions of the wearer's body. Abraham-Louis Perrelet invented the first self-winding mechanism for pocket watches in 1770, but it wasn’t until British watchmaker John Harwood invented the first "self-winding" or "automatic" wristwatch in 1923 that the modern wristwatch came into its own.

Electronic watch movements use a tiny quartz crystal which forms an oscillator which resonates at a specific and stable frequency, and which watchmakers use to accurately pace today’s timepieces.

Learn what to look for when buying a watch.
Find out what's inside a watch.
Find out what you should know about watch batteries.
Learn how to correct for Daylight Saving Time.
Read about pocket watches.
Learn about the Waterbury Watch.
Find out about the origin of the railroad watch.
Read about collecting watches. 
Read about watch papers.
Read about collecting pocket watch holders.