Yes so if you are ordinary man with a little cash to burn and have an yearing to purchase a “pure” wristwatch, that is, an automatic wristwatch, than you may be enamored over this concept called “jewels”

Yes, as is more often than not, watch salesmen and others will weigh the pros and cons of one watch over the other by explaining water resistance to depths of which you’ll never go.  They’ll tell you about useless certifications and pretty much anything under the Sun God Ra to sell you that watch.

Well one thing that they might tell you is about how many “jewels” a movement has.

Sound familiar?

Well let me let you in on a little watch education.  You see every automatic watch is essentially powered by a tightly coiled spring that slowly unfurls and rewinds itself when you move around.  The “jewels” in a watch movement are really bearings and they essentially serve the same purpose as ball bearings.  They reduce friction within the moving parts of the watch and makes the friction a lot more predictable, thus improving the accuracy of the watch.

Too many times I encounter idiots at the water cooler who claim that because a watch has 27 jewels as opposed to 21 jewels, than it must be better because it is more valuable, and better because it is simply “more! more! more!”  They claim that in the end more jewels means a better watch.

Well let me say first of all you, you nut, that the “jewels” in a watch movement are not King Tut’s jewels and you can’t take them out and sell them if you’re in a pinch.  They are small synthetic sapphires, and the last time I checked, I believe they cost around 2/10 of one cent.

Secondly, it’s not about how many jewels you have in a movement, it’s how each jewel is being used.  You can a jillion jewel movement, but if they aren’t doing anything than what’s the point.  Too often I hear people base their high-end watch purchases in part because of the jewel count, and that’s totally wrong.

I agree to a point that it’s better to have more jewels than less.  Your basic movement, for example, has 17 jewels, but I think that pretty much any movement with 21 jewels or more is perfectly fine for an uncomplicated movement.  So in conclusion, just like with drinking, you’re good if you’re over 21.