A
watch is a 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 around the 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 progressed in
the 17th century from spring-powered clocks, which appeared as early as
the 14th century. During most of its history the watch was a mechanical
device, driven by clockwork, powered by winding a mainspring, and
keeping time with an oscillating balance wheel. In the 1960s the
electronic quartz watch was invented, which was powered by a battery and
kept time with a vibrating quartz crystal. By the 1980s the quartz
watch had taken over most of the market from the mechanical watch.
Today
most watches that are inexpensive and medium-priced, used mainly for
timekeeping, have quartz movements. Expensive collectible watches,
valued more for their elaborate craftsmanship, aesthetic appeal and
glamorous design than for simple timekeeping, often have traditional
mechanical movements, even though they are 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.[1] 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[2] and Bluetooth technology or have heart-rate monitoring
capabilities. Some watches use radio clock technology to regularly
correct the time.
Developments in the 2010s include smartwatches,
which are elaborate computer-like electronic devices designed to be
worn on a wrist. They generally incorporate timekeeping functions, but
these are only a small subset of the smartwatch's facilities.
The study of timekeeping is known as horology.
Jewellery
Forms
Anklet
Barrette Belt buckle Belly chain Bindi Bolo tie Bracelet Brooch
Chatelaine Collar pin Crown Cufflink Earring Ferronnière Lapel pin
Necklace Pectoral Pendant Ring Tiara Tie chain Tie clip Tie pin Toe ring
Watch pocket strap
Making
People
Bench jeweler Clockmaker Goldsmith Silversmith Jewelry designer Lapidary Watchmaker
Processes
Carving
Casting centrifugal lost-wax vacuum Enameling Engraving Filigree
Kazaziye Metal clay Plating Polishing Repoussé and chasing Soldering
Stonesetting Wire sculpture Wire wrapped jewelry
Tools
Draw plate File Hammer Mandrel Pliers
Materials
Precious metals
Gold Palladium Platinum Rhodium Silver
Precious metal alloys
Britannia silver Colored gold Crown gold Electrum Shakudō Shibuichi Sterling silver Tumbaga
Base metals
Brass Bronze Copper Mokume-gane Pewter Stainless steel Titanium Tungsten
Mineral gemstones
Aventurine
Agate Amethyst Beryl Carnelian Chrysoberyl Chrysocolla Diamond Diopside
Emerald Garnet Howlite Jade Jasper Lapis lazuli Larimar Malachite
Marcasite Moonstone Obsidian Onyx Opal Pearl Peridot Prasiolite Quartz
Ruby Sapphire Sodalite Spinel Sunstone Tanzanite Tiger's eye Topaz
Tourmaline Turquoise Variscite Zircon
Organic gemstones
Abalone Amber Ammolite Bog-wood Copal Coral Ivory Jet Nacre Operculum
Other natural objects
Bog-wood Hair Shell jewelry Toadstone
Terms
Carat (mass) Carat (purity) Finding Millesimal fineness Art jewelry
Related topics Body piercing Fashion Gemology Phaleristics Metalworking Wearable art
[hide] v t e
Time measurement and standards
Chronometry Orders of magnitude Metrology
International standards
Coordinated
Universal Time offset UT ΔT DUT1 International Earth Rotation and
Reference Systems Service ISO 31-1 ISO 8601 International Atomic Time
6-hour clock 12-hour clock 24-hour clock Barycentric Coordinate Time
Barycentric Dynamical Time Civil time Daylight saving time Geocentric
Coordinate Time International Date Line Leap second Solar time
Terrestrial Time Time zone 180th meridian
Obsolete standards
Ephemeris time Greenwich Mean Time Prime meridian
Time in physics
Absolute
time and space Spacetime Chronon Continuous signal Coordinate time
Cosmological decade Discrete time and continuous time Planck time Proper
time Theory of relativity Time dilation Gravitational time dilation
Time domain Time translation symmetry T-symmetry
Horology
Clock
Astrarium Atomic clock Complication History of timekeeping devices
Hourglass Marine chronometer Marine sandglass Radio clock Watch Water
clock Sundial Dialing scales Equation of time History of sundials
Sundial markup schema
Calendar
Astronomical Dominical letter
Epact Equinox Gregorian Hebrew Hindu Intercalation Islamic Julian Leap
year Lunar Lunisolar Solar Solstice Tropical year Weekday determination
Weekday names
Archaeology and geology
Chronological dating Geologic time scale International Commission on Stratigraphy
Astronomical chronology
Galactic year Nuclear timescale Precession Sidereal time
Other units of time
Flick Shake Jiffy Second Minute Moment Hour Day Week Fortnight Month Year Olympiad Lustrum Decade Century Saeculum Millennium
Related topics
Chronology Duration music Mental chronometry Metric time System time Time value of money Timekeeper
Soviet
Union, in full Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.), Russian
Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik or Sovetsky Soyuz, former
northern Eurasian empire (1917/22–1991) stretching from the Baltic and
Black seas to the Pacific Ocean and, in its final years, consisting of
15 Soviet Socialist Republics (S.S.R.’s): Armenia, Azerbaijan,
Belorussia (now Belarus), Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kirgiziya (now
Kyrgyzstan), Latvia, Lithuania, Moldavia (now Moldova), Russia,
Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan. The capital was
Moscow, then and now the capital of Russia.
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
During
the period of its existence, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
was by area the world’s largest country. It was also one of the most
diverse, with more than 100 distinct nationalities living within its
borders. The majority of the population, however, was made up of East
Slavs (Russians, Ukrainians, and Belorussians); these groups together
made up more than two-thirds of the total population in the late 1980s.
At
its greatest extent, between 1946 and 1991 (the figures and
descriptions given below refer to this period), the U.S.S.R. covered
some 8,650,000 square miles (22,400,000 square kilometres), seven times
the area of India and two and one-half times that of the United States.
The country occupied nearly one-sixth of the Earth’s land surface,
including the eastern half of Europe and roughly the northern third of
Asia.
The U.S.S.R. extended more than 6,800 miles (10,900
kilometres) from east to west, covering 11 of the world’s 24 time zones.
The most westerly point was on the Baltic Sea, near Kaliningrad; the
easternmost was Cape Dezhnev on the Bering Strait, nearly halfway around
the world. From north to south the U.S.S.R. extended some 2,800 miles
from Cape Chelyuskin to Kushka on the Afghan border. Nearly half the
territory of the U.S.S.R. was north of 60° N, at the same latitude as
Alaska, Baffin Island, and Greenland.
In addition to having the
world’s longest coastline, the U.S.S.R. had the longest frontiers. To
the north the country was bounded by the seas of the Arctic Ocean, and
to the east were the seas of the Pacific. On the south the U.S.S.R. was
bordered by North Korea, Mongolia, China, Afghanistan, Iran, and Turkey.
On the southern frontier there were three seas: the Caspian Sea, the
world’s largest inland sea, as well as the almost completely landlocked
Black Sea and Sea of Azov. Romania, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Poland,
Finland, and Norway lay to the west.
The U.S.S.R. was the
successor to the Russian Empire of the tsars. Following the 1917
Revolution, four socialist republics were established on the territory
of the former empire: the Russian and Transcaucasian Soviet Federated
Socialist Republics and the Ukrainian and Belorussian Soviet Socialist
Republics. On Dec. 30, 1922, these constituent republics established the
U.S.S.R. Additional union republics (Soviet Socialist Republics) were
set up in subsequent years: the Turkmen and Uzbek S.S.R.’s in 1924, the
Tadzhik S.S.R. in 1929, and the Kazakh and Kirgiz S.S.R.’s in 1936. In
that year the Transcaucasian Republic was abolished and its territory
was divided between three new republics: the Armenian, Azerbaijan, and
Georgian S.S.R.’s. In 1940 the Karelo-Finnish, Moldavian, Estonian,
Latvian, and Lithuanian S.S.R.’s were established. The Karelo-Finnish
S.S.R. became an autonomous republic in 1956, leaving a total of 15
union republics (soyuznye respubliki). In addition to these, the
U.S.S.R. as of 1990 was made up of 20 autonomous republics (avtonomnye
respubliki), 8 autonomous provinces (avtonomnye oblasti), 10 autonomous
districts (avtonomnye okruga), 6 regions (kraya), and 114 provinces
(oblasti).
Under the constitution adopted in the 1930s and
modified down to October 1977, the political foundation of the U.S.S.R.
was formed by the Soviets (Councils) of People’s Deputies. These existed
at all levels of the administrative hierarchy, with the Soviet Union as
a whole under the nominal control of the Supreme Soviet of the
U.S.S.R., located in Moscow. This body had two chambers—the Soviet of
the Union, with 750 members elected on a single-member constituency
basis; and the Soviet of Nationalities, with 750 members representing
the various political divisions: 32 from each union republic, 11 from
each autonomous republic, 5 from each autonomous region, and 1 from each
autonomous district. In elections to these bodies, the voters were
rarely given any choice of candidate other than those presented by the
Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), which, until the amendment
of Article 6 of the constitution in March 1990, was the “leading and
guiding force of Soviet society and the nucleus of its political
system.” In theory, all legislation required the approval of both
chambers of the Supreme Soviet; in practice, all decisions were made by
the small group known as the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, itself
strongly influenced by the Politburo of the CPSU, and were unanimously
approved by the deputies. The role of the soviets in the individual
republics and other territories was primarily to put into effect the
decisions made by the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R.
The
political system was thus authoritarian and highly centralized, and this
also applied to the economic system. The economic foundation of the
U.S.S.R. was “Socialist ownership of the means of production,
distribution, and exchange,” and the economy of the entire country was
controlled by a series of five-year plans that set targets for all forms
of production.
Dramatic changes, both political and economic,
occurred during the late 1980s and early ’90s, ushered in by the
adoption of perestroika (“restructuring”) and glasnost (“openness”). On
the economic side the planned, highly centralized command economy was to
be replaced by the progressive introduction of elements of a market
economy, a change that proved difficult to achieve and was accompanied
by declining production in many sectors and increasing distribution
problems. In the political sphere, amendments to the constitution in
1988 replaced the old Supreme Soviet with the Congress of People’s
Deputies of the U.S.S.R. The new congress had 2,250 members; one-third
of these were elected on a constituency basis, one-third represented the
political territories (as in the old Supreme Soviet), and the remaining
third came from “all-union social organizations” such as the trade
unions, the CPSU, and the Academy of Sciences. Voters were presented
with a choice of candidates, and many non-Communists were elected. The
Congress of People’s Deputies elected a new Supreme Soviet of 542
members and also chose the chairman of that body, who was to be the
executive president of the U.S.S.R. Congresses of People’s Deputies were
also established in each republic.
These congresses could be
legitimately described as parliaments, and they engaged in vigorous
debate over the economic and political future of the country. From 1989,
conflicts developed between the parliament of the U.S.S.R. and those of
the individual republics, mainly over the respective powers of the
centre (the U.S.S.R. government) and the republics. These conflicts were
exacerbated by the resurgence of ethnic nationalism and increasing
demands for autonomy and even for full independence. Following the
abortive coup of August 1991, in which the CPSU was heavily implicated,
the party itself was abolished.
By December 1991 the Union of
Soviet Socialist Republics had virtually ceased to exist, and the future
of its territories and peoples was uncertain. Three republics—Estonia,
Latvia, and Lithuania—had achieved complete independence and were
internationally recognized as sovereign states, and several others were
demanding independence. Attempts were made, led by Mikhail Gorbachev,
the president of the Soviet Union, to establish a new “Union of
Sovereign States” with some degree of integration in foreign policy,
defense, and economic affairs, but agreement among the remaining 12
republics was not achieved. Whatever the legal position, the union
republics had begun to act as if they were sovereign states and were
negotiating with each other, bypassing the vestigial central government.
This process culminated on Dec. 8, 1991, in the signing of an agreement
between the three Slav republics of Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus for
the establishment of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), with
an agreed common policy for foreign affairs and defense. The CIS later
came to include all the remaining republics except Georgia, but great
difficulty was experienced in arriving at agreed policies. The future
thus remained uncertain, but there could be no disagreement with the
statement by the leaders of the Commonwealth that “the U.S.S.R. has
ceased to exist as a geopolitical reality.”
Russia, country that
stretches over a vast expanse of eastern Europe and northern Asia. Once
the preeminent republic of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
(U.S.S.R.; commonly known as the Soviet Union), Russia became an
independent country after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in
December 1991.
Russia is a land of superlatives. By far the
world’s largest country, it covers nearly twice the territory of Canada,
the second largest. It extends across the whole of northern Asia and
the eastern third of Europe, spanning 11 time zones and incorporating a
great range of environments and landforms, from deserts to semiarid
steppes to deep forests and Arctic tundra. Russia contains Europe’s
longest river, the Volga, and its largest lake, Ladoga. Russia also is
home to the world’s deepest lake, Baikal, and the country recorded the
world’s lowest temperature outside the North and South poles.
Russia
Russia
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
The
inhabitants of Russia are quite diverse. Most are ethnic Russians, but
there also are more than 120 other ethnic groups present, speaking many
languages and following disparate religious and cultural traditions.
Most of the Russian population is concentrated in the European portion
of the country, especially in the fertile region surrounding Moscow, the
capital. Moscow and St. Petersburg (formerly Leningrad) are the two
most important cultural and financial centres in Russia and are among
the most picturesque cities in the world. Russians are also populous in
Asia, however; beginning in the 17th century, and particularly
pronounced throughout much of the 20th century, a steady flow of ethnic
Russians and Russian-speaking people moved eastward into Siberia, where
cities such as Vladivostok and Irkutsk now flourish.
Russia’s
climate is extreme, with forbidding winters that have several times
famously saved the country from foreign invaders. Although the climate
adds a layer of difficulty to daily life, the land is a generous source
of crops and materials, including vast reserves of oil, gas, and
precious metals. That richness of resources has not translated into an
easy life for most of the country’s people, however; indeed, much of
Russia’s history has been a grim tale of the very wealthy and powerful
few ruling over a great mass of their poor and powerless compatriots.
Serfdom endured well into the modern era; the years of Soviet communist
rule (1917–91), especially the long dictatorship of Joseph Stalin, saw
subjugation of a different and more exacting sort.
Russia: administrative divisions
Russia: administrative divisions
Administrative divisions of Russia.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
The
Russian republic was established immediately after the Russian
Revolution of 1917 and became a union republic in 1922. During the
post-World War II era, Russia was a central player in international
affairs, locked in a Cold War struggle with the United States. In 1991,
following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Russia joined with
several other former Soviet republics to form a loose coalition, the
Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Although the demise of
Soviet-style communism and the subsequent collapse of the Soviet Union
brought profound political and economic changes, including the
beginnings of the formation of a large middle class, for much of the
postcommunist era Russians had to endure a generally weak economy, high
inflation, and a complex of social ills that served to lower life
expectancy significantly. Despite such profound problems, Russia showed
promise of achieving its potential as a world power once again, as if to
exemplify a favourite proverb, stated in the 19th century by Austrian
statesman Klemens, Fürst (prince) von Metternich: “Russia is never as
strong as she appears, and never as weak as she appears.”
Russia
can boast a long tradition of excellence in every aspect of the arts and
sciences. Prerevolutionary Russian society produced the writings and
music of such giants of world culture as Anton Chekhov, Aleksandr
Pushkin, Leo Tolstoy, Nikolay Gogol, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, and Pyotr
Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The 1917 revolution and the changes it brought were
reflected in the works of such noted figures as the novelists Maxim
Gorky, Boris Pasternak, and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and the composers
Dmitry Shostakovich and Sergey Prokofiev. And the late Soviet and
postcommunist eras witnessed a revival of interest in once-forbidden
artists such as the poets Vladimir Mayakovsky and Anna Akhmatova while
ushering in new talents such as the novelist Victor Pelevin and the
writer and journalist Tatyana Tolstaya, whose celebration of the arrival
of winter in St. Petersburg, a beloved event, suggests the resilience
and stoutheartedness of her people:
The snow begins to fall in
October. People watch for it impatiently, turning repeatedly to look
outside. If only it would come! Everyone is tired of the cold rain that
taps stupidly on windows and roofs. The houses are so drenched that they
seem about to crumble into sand. But then, just as the gloomy sky sinks
even lower, there comes the hope that the boring drum of water from the
clouds will finally give way to a flurry of…and there it goes: tiny dry
grains at first, then an exquisitely carved flake, two, three ornate
stars, followed by fat fluffs of snow, then more, more, more—a great
store of cotton tumbling down.
For the geography and history of
the other former Soviet republics, see Moldova, Estonia, Latvia,
Lithuania, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan,
Uzbekistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Ukraine. See also Union of
Soviet Socialist Republics.
Largest cities or towns in Russia
Rosstat (2016[282][283]/2017)
Rank Name Federal subject Pop. Rank Name Federal subject Pop.
1 Moscow Moscow [284]12,381,000 11 Rostov-na-Donu Rostov Oblast 1,120,000
2 Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg [284]5,282,000 12 Krasnoyarsk Krasnoyarsk Krai [285]1,084,000
3 Novosibirsk Novosibirsk Oblast [286]1,603,000 13 Perm Perm Krai 1,042,000
4 Yekaterinburg Sverdlovsk Oblast [287]1,456,000 14 Voronezh Voronezh Oblast 1,032,000
5 Nizhny Novgorod Nizhny Novgorod Oblast 1,267,000 15 Volgograd Volgograd Oblast 1,016,000
6 Kazan Tatarstan [288]1,232,000 16 Krasnodar Krasnodar Krai [289]881,000
7 Chelyabinsk Chelyabinsk Oblast [290]1,199,000 17 Saratov Saratov Oblast 843,000
8 Omsk Omsk Oblast [291]1,178,000 18 Tolyatti Samara Oblast [292]711,000
9 Samara Samara Oblast [292]1,170,000 19 Izhevsk Udmurtia [293]646,000
10 Ufa Bashkortostan [294]1,126,000 20 Ulyanovsk Ulyanovsk Oblast 622,000