Parts of a Wrist Watch – Dial, Bezel, Crown and Lugs

All 14 parts on the diagram

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The face 9

Dial The face that shows the time; the hands turn over it.
Hour hand The short hand. It goes round the dial twice a day.
Minute hand The long hand. It goes round the dial once every hour.
Second hand The thin hand that shows the seconds of the current minute.
Subdial A small dial set into the main one, often for seconds.
Crown The knob on the side, used to set the time.
Pushers Buttons beside the crown that start, stop and reset a stopwatch.
Lugs Projections at each end of the case where the band attaches.
Strap The band that holds the watch on the wrist.

Taken apart 5

Crystal The clear cover over the dial and the hands.
Bezel The ring that holds the crystal in place.
Case The outer covering that houses the works of the watch.
Spring bar A spring-loaded pin between two lugs that holds the strap on.
Case back The back of the case; it comes off to reach the movement.

How this list was compiled: Every name checked on 2026-09-30, a name kept only where two independent sources use it. (1) Wikipedia, text only: Watch, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watch (case, case back, crystal, or window or watch glass, bezel as the ring holding the crystal, lugs, dial, hour, minute and second hands, crown, chronograph pushers); Watch strap, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watch_strap (watch strap or band, the spring bar as a spring-loaded double-ended pin); Chronograph, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronograph (pushers placed beside the crown, sub-dials); Clock face, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clock_face (hour hand, minute hand, second hand, subdial). (2) US War Department, TM 9-1575, Ordnance Maintenance: Wrist Watches, Pocket Watches, Stop Watches, and Clocks (1945), https://archive.org/details/TM9-1575, read in full (case, bezel as the front ring of the case which retains the crystal, crystal, back, crown, dial, hour, minute and second hands, lugs, spring bars, strap). (3) A jewelry insurer's guide to the ten parts of a watch, read in the Internet Archive copy, https://web.archive.org/web/2023/https://www.jewelersmutual.com/the-jewelry-box/10-parts-watch-you-should-actually-know (bezel, case, crown, crystal, dial, hand, lugs, pusher, subdial). Licence: own work

The drawing: Drawn for this site on 2026-09-30 from plain geometry; no maker's watch, nothing traced. Licence: own work

How it works

The parts of a wristwatch you can see are on its face: the dial, three hands, a subdial, the crown and its pushers. The second drawing takes the case apart, from the crystal down to the case back.

Read the full guide

Parts of a watch face

Numbers 1 to 9. The hour, minute and second hands turn over the dial, and a subdial sits low on it. The crown is on the right, with a pusher above and below. Four lugs hold the two ends of the strap.

The case, taken apart

Numbers 10 to 14, from the top: the crystal, the bezel that holds it, the case, a spring bar lifted out from between two lugs, and the case back.

Watch glass and window are other names for the crystal.
A chronograph is a watch with a stopwatch built in; its pushers work the stopwatch.

Questions and answers

What are the parts of a wrist watch called?

On the face: the dial, the hour, minute and second hands, and sometimes a subdial. Round them: the crystal, the bezel, the case and the case back. On the side: the crown and any pushers. The lugs hold the strap.

What is the knob on the side of a watch called?

The crown. It is used to set the time, and on a mechanical watch turning it also winds the mainspring. Buttons beside it are pushers.

What is the glass on a watch called?

The crystal, also called the watch glass or window. It is the clear part of the case that lets you see the dial and the hands. The bezel is the ring that holds it in place.

What holds the strap to a watch?

The lugs, small projections at both ends of the case, and a spring bar between each pair. A spring bar is a pin with spring-loaded ends that snap into holes in the lugs.