Watch

A watch is a small timepiece intended to be carried or worn by a person. It is designed to keep working despite the motions caused by the person's activities. A wristwatch is designed to be worn on a wrist, attached by a watch strap or other type of bracelet. A pocket watch is designed for a person to carry in a pocket.

Watches evolved in the 17th century from spring-powered clocks, which appeared as early as the 14th century. The first watches were strictly mechanical, driven by clockwork. As technology progressed, mechanical devices, used to control the speed of the watch, were largely superseded by vibrating quartz crystals that produce accurately timed electronic pulses. Some watches use radio clock technology to regularly correct the time. The first digital electronic watch was developed in 1970.

Most inexpensive and medium-priced watches, used mainly for timekeeping, are electronic watches with quartz movements. Expensive collectible watches, valued more for their elaborate craftsmanship, aesthetic appeal and glamorous design than for simple timekeeping, often have purely mechanical movements and are powered by springs, even though these movements are generally less accurate and more expensive than electronic ones. Various extra features, called "complications", such as moon-phase displays and the different types of tourbillon, are sometimes included. Modern watches often display the day, date, month and year, and electronic watches may have many other functions. Time-related features such as timers, chronographs and alarm functions are common. Some modern designs incorporate calculators, GPS and Bluetooth technology or have heart-rate monitoring capabilities. Watches incorporating GPS receivers use them not only to determine their position. They also receive and use time signals from the satellites, which make them essentially perfectly accurate timekeepers, even over long periods of time.

Watch system

A watch system, watch schedule, or watch bill is a method of assigning regular periods of work duty aboard ships and some other areas of employment. A watch system allows the ship's crew to effectively operate the ship 24 hours a day for the duration of long voyages or operations.

Many watch systems incorporate the concept of dogging, whereby one watch is split into two shorter watches so that there is an odd number each day. Doing so allows crew members to have a different watch schedule each day. Often, the dog watches are set at dinner time to allow the entire crew to be fed in short order.

Traditional system

In the traditional Royal Navy watch system, 'watch' refers to a period of time and to a grouping of personnel. Those members of the crew whose work must be done at all times of the day - known as 'watch-keepers' - are assigned to one of two watches: the Starboard or the Port watch. These can be further divided into two parts, e.g. First Port, Second Starboard. These two watches - or more usually the four parts of watches - alternate in working the following watches:

Watch (novel)

Watch, also called WWW: Watch, is a 2010 novel written by Canadian novelist Robert J. Sawyer. It is the second installment in the WWW Trilogy and was preceded by Wake (2009) and followed by Wonder (2011).

Synopsis

Caitlin has bonded with Webmind and the two find themselves sharing an unconventional, yet fulfilling friendship. However not everything is going quite as well as they hoped, as they discover that a secret government agency named WATCH has been expressing concern over the potential threats posed by Webmind. They're convinced that the entity will bring nothing but trouble and will jeopardize the security of the United States and as such, must be destroyed.

Reception

Like its predecessor, critical reception for Watch was mostly positive. Much of the praise centered on Sawyer's use of technology and pacing, and SciFiNow wrote that the book was "a great science fiction novel, a melding of Frankenstein, high technology and our own perspectives as people, brought into the context of the modern world with the skill and panache of an exemplary practitioner of the form." Criticism for the book tended to stem from the usage of pop culture terms as well as Sawyer's use of the book as a platform for various viewpoints, which some reviewers felt detracted from their enjoyment.