Jewels are used in watches at friction points. You can get them to a very fine point and they will not wear down like metal. So at a point that a gear will be turning for days and days, they use a jewel. if they used metal the point would soon wear to a round nub. Like the end of a ball point pen. increasing friction, and slowing the watches movement. Decreasing the accuracy of the watches timekeeping ability. Usually the higher amount of jewels in a watch the more accurate. Also more moving pieces. Historically the more jewels the more expensive. That was when all the watch pieces were made by hand, and needed to be very precise. Now that we have CNC and computers making very precise components, that old adage isn't so true. Jewels are used in all watches that have gears and movements in them. Not just Automatic watches. The newer watches that are basically small printed circuits and LED readouts don't have them, because of no moving parts. And I'm not sure if new cheap watches with moving hands, they may have little electric motors. But if it is old, or new and you can see moving gears when you remove the back. It has "Jewels".
A timepiece like this Invicta men's diving watch advertised as "21 jewel movement" automatic means that the workings of the watch are jewels, which are harder and won't wear down like metal gears. Jeweled movements were used before quartz and digital watch technology.
what is 21 jewels//
There's a good discussion of jewels in watches here: http://elginwatches.org/help/watch_jewels.html
what is 21 jewels//
I need to this too
I bought a Nurse fob watch with 21 jewels ,made in the USSR for 1.50 Euros. It is still warking and has a att., chain with it, This was bought from a women dealer At Car booth sale on Sunday.
My experience is that the 21 jewel automatic watch, which I have (1972 model I think) is water resistant, but not water proof. Play safe and take it off. Cheers Jasper
The 049 calibre is an automatic movement based on an ETA 2892-A2. It is 25.6mm wide and 3.6mm thick, it has 21 jewels and operates at 28,800 vph.
That depends on the watch. The simplest examples, with 15 jewels and brass plates are usually a couple of hundred bucks. the cases are more valuable than the movements. The more elaborate decorated nickel plate examples, with 21 jewels in solid gold cases are often more than $5,000.
Miss Simpson's Jewels - 1913 was released on: USA: 21 March 1913
Las Vegas - 2003 The Family Jewels 1-21 is rated/received certificates of: Argentina:13 Spain:13
Around 300-400 depending on the condition of the watch and exact model. They're not particularly rare at this time, but that's a plus if you want to have one for daily use (since replacement parts are cheaper)