Mainspring
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The driving spring of a watch or clock, contained in the barrel.
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Malleable
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Capable of being easily shaped or formed, malleable metals can be worked with a hammer or a roller. Gold and sterling silver are very malleable metals.
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Manual watch
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A mechanical watch wound by hand.
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Malachite
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An opaque semi-precious stone with layers of deep green and light green, usually found in copper mines.
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Marquise
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A cut that gives precious stones a shape like an oval with two pointed ends.
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Mineral
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A naturally occurring, homogeneous inorganic solid substance having a definite chemical composition and characteristic crystalline structure, color, and hardness. Examples of minerals include:
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An element, such as gold or silver.
An organic derivative, such as coal or petroleum.
A substance, such as stone, sand, salt, or coal, that is extracted or obtained from the ground or water and used in economic activities.
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Mohs Scale
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The Mohs Scale measures a substance's hardness, that is, how resistant it is to being scratched. In the Mohs Scale, which ranges from 1 to 10, one substance is harder than another if it can scratch it. For example, a diamond (hardness = 10) will scratch garnet (hardness = 6.5-7.5), but not the other way around.
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Micron
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Metric unit of length, equivalent to one thousandth of a millimetre and represented by the symbol µ. In the watch industry, tolerances are often expressed in microns.
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Minute repeater
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A timepiece that can be made to strike the time in hours, quarters and minutes, by means of a push-piece or slide, usually in the side of the case.
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Mother-of-pearl
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The iridescent coating on the inside of oyster shells. Mother-of-pearl is used for jewellery, buttons, among things.
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Moldavite
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A rare, glassy, translucent, dark green gemstone. Moldavite is a silica-based tektite, a mineral formed when a meteorite (a rock from space) struck the Earth's surface and melted, fusing the surrounding rock. Moldavite is only found in Bohemia (the Czech Republic).
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Mollusc (univalve and bivalve)
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An aquatic, soft-bodies invertebrate that lives in a shell, found either in seawater or freshwater. If it has only one shell (e.g. the abalone shell), it is “univalve”. If it has two shells connected by a hinge, it is an oyster or “bivalve” mollusc.
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Moon phases
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The progression of visible changes in the moon’s appearance during its orbit around the Earth (new moon, waxing moon, half moon, full moon, waning moon).
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Moonstone
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A variety of feldspar that is transparent or translucent. Moonstone has been imitated in glass.
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Movement
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The “motor” of a watch, an assembly consisting of the principal elements and mechanisms of a watch or clock: the winding and setting mechanism, the mainspring, the train, the escapement, the regulating elements.
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