A watch is a personal portable timepiece.
Miniature sundials were the earliest form of portable timepieces. The 24-hour dial below was marked in Roman numerals on the outer band and in Arabic numerals on the inner one.
Watches have been made ever since locksmith and watchmaker Peter Henlein from Nuremberg, Germany invented the mainspring as a means of driving a clock in around 1500. His invention made portable timepieces possible.
These first watches were made in Nuremberg and Augsburg, and were sometimes called Nuremberg Eggs.
The Watch 1505 was crafted by Peter Henlein during the year 1505. It is the oldest watch in the world that still works.
Like clocks the early watches needed a means of maintaining a constant speed as the mainspring ran down. The earliest means was the fusee (a cord wound round a conical barrel).
One of the earliest references to what we would perhaps now call a wristwatch was the new year gift received by Queen Elizabeth I from Robert Dudley, the Earl of Leicester, in 1571. It was described as an armed watch, having "in the closing thearof a clocke, and in the forepart of the same a faire lozengie djamond without a foyle, hanging thearat a rounde juell fully garnished with dyamondes and a perle pendaunt."
From the beginning, wristwatches were almost exclusively worn by women. The idea failed to catch on for men, who continued to use pocket watches until the early 20th century.
Although portable clocks appeared in the 16th century, pocket or 'fob' watches only became practicable in the late 17th century, with the advent of the coiled spring drive and balance-spring regulator. Many watches incorporated a repeating mechanism, striking the hours and quarter-hours.
By the 18th century the mechanical mechanism had been perfected by inventors such as Thomas Tompion and Thomas Earnshaw, but throughout the nineteenth century watches remained articles of value.
The oldest surviving wristwatch (then described as a bracelet watch) is one made in 1806 and given to Joséphine de Beauharnais.
Watches made the short journey from bosom to wrist during the 19th century, due in part to the craze among middle-class women for cycling. Their new, more convenient position made sense and they developed quickly.
The Albert is a short kind of watch named after Prince Albert (1819-1861), husband of the UK's Queen Victoria. Albert originated a fashion for wearing a watch chain across a waistcoat from one pocket hole to the other.
In 1850, at Roxbury, Massachusetts, David Davis, Edward Howard, and Aaron Lufkin Dennison formed a company whose revolutionary business plan was to manufacture the movement parts of watches so precisely that they would become fully interchangeable.
Davis, howard and Dennison's company relocated four years later to Waltham, Massachusetts, to become the Waltham Watch Company, a pioneer in the American system of watch manufacturing.
Watches remained a luxury until 1868, when G. F. Rosskopf, in Switzerland, introduced cheap watches of simplified design for working men. Roskopf was able to present his watch at the Universal Exhibition in Paris in 1868 and won a Bronze Medal.
In 1870 Georges Roskopf introduced a second design with a setting mechanism; this watch cost 25 francs.
Wrist watches with analogue faces came into common use in the 1860s, but weren't considered manly, and were mainly worn by women. Many regarded them as a joke and fad.
During the early part of the 20th century, increasing miniaturization, mass production and the need for accurate time keeping for the military, led to the migration of the male watch from the pockets to the wrist.
The Parisian jeweller Cartier is credited with creating the first popular men's wristwatch in 1904 for Brazilian aviation pioneer Alberto Santos-Dumont who found it hard to look at a pocket watch while flying. This square-faced watch became so popular it is still in production today in much the same form. Until then wrist clocks were thought of as a decorative item for women.
Wristwatches became essential items of battlefield equipment during World War I as the creeping barrage artillery tactic, developed during the war, required precise synchronization between the artillery gunners and the infantry advancing behind the barrage.
Rolex began trading under that name in 1915. Their first watches were made in London.
1921
Rolex created the first ever waterproof and dustproof wristwatch, the Oyster, in 1926. The watch featured a hermetically sealed case which provided optimal protection for the movement.
Self-winding watches, responding to movements of the wearer's wrist, first appeared in the early 1920s.
One of the earliest Mickey Mouse goods to go on sale was the Mickey Mouse wristwatch. Introduced in 1933, the watch originally retailed at $3.75 and sold at a pace of two million annually.
The Hamilton Watch Company introduced the first electric watch on January 3, 1957. This had no mainspring, the mechanism being kept in motion by the mutual attraction of a permanent magnet and an electromagnet, which pushed the balance wheel.
Electronic movements, also known as quartz movements, have few or no moving parts, except a quartz crystal which is made to vibrate by the piezoelectric effect. (An electric charge that accumulates in certain solid materials such as crystals, in response to applied mechanical stress). The first quartz watch to be manufactured was the Seiko 35 SQ Astron, which hit the shelves on December 25, 1969.
Watches finally went digital in the 1970s when the Hamilton Company developed the Pulsar, which sported lights in place of hands.
The first LCD watches were marketed as early as 1972 in which all moving parts are dispensed with. The time measurement is done by a quartz crystal oscillator linked to digital counting and display circuits. The time is usually indicated by liquid crystal display (LCD).
In 1999, Samsung launched the world's first watch phone, the SPH-WP10. It had 90-minutes of talk time with an integrated speaker and microphone.
In most advertisements, the time displayed on a watch is 10:10. This is because the 10:10 position is symmetrical, and the human brain tends to appreciate symmetry and orderliness. Also the 10:10 hands look “happy” due to the fact that the hands look like a smile.
Rolex is the largest single luxury watch brand with estimated revenues of around £1.75 billion.
A Swiss watchmaker created a series of 400 $10,000 watches that contain a strand of hair from Napoléon Bonaparte.
Wearing a Casio F-91W, a cheap digital watch sold around the world, was used as evidence to keep detainees at Guantánamo Bay.
NASA has special wristwatches that keep Mars time for employees working with the rovers.
Sources Europress Encyclopedia, The Independent
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| Pixiebay |
HISTORY OF WATCHES
Miniature sundials were the earliest form of portable timepieces. The 24-hour dial below was marked in Roman numerals on the outer band and in Arabic numerals on the inner one.
Watches have been made ever since locksmith and watchmaker Peter Henlein from Nuremberg, Germany invented the mainspring as a means of driving a clock in around 1500. His invention made portable timepieces possible.
These first watches were made in Nuremberg and Augsburg, and were sometimes called Nuremberg Eggs.
The Watch 1505 was crafted by Peter Henlein during the year 1505. It is the oldest watch in the world that still works.
Like clocks the early watches needed a means of maintaining a constant speed as the mainspring ran down. The earliest means was the fusee (a cord wound round a conical barrel).
 |
| A pomander watch from 1530 once belonged to Philip Melanchthon |
One of the earliest references to what we would perhaps now call a wristwatch was the new year gift received by Queen Elizabeth I from Robert Dudley, the Earl of Leicester, in 1571. It was described as an armed watch, having "in the closing thearof a clocke, and in the forepart of the same a faire lozengie djamond without a foyle, hanging thearat a rounde juell fully garnished with dyamondes and a perle pendaunt."
From the beginning, wristwatches were almost exclusively worn by women. The idea failed to catch on for men, who continued to use pocket watches until the early 20th century.
Although portable clocks appeared in the 16th century, pocket or 'fob' watches only became practicable in the late 17th century, with the advent of the coiled spring drive and balance-spring regulator. Many watches incorporated a repeating mechanism, striking the hours and quarter-hours.
By the 18th century the mechanical mechanism had been perfected by inventors such as Thomas Tompion and Thomas Earnshaw, but throughout the nineteenth century watches remained articles of value.
 |
| A mechanical watch movement |
The oldest surviving wristwatch (then described as a bracelet watch) is one made in 1806 and given to Joséphine de Beauharnais.
Watches made the short journey from bosom to wrist during the 19th century, due in part to the craze among middle-class women for cycling. Their new, more convenient position made sense and they developed quickly.
The Albert is a short kind of watch named after Prince Albert (1819-1861), husband of the UK's Queen Victoria. Albert originated a fashion for wearing a watch chain across a waistcoat from one pocket hole to the other.
In 1850, at Roxbury, Massachusetts, David Davis, Edward Howard, and Aaron Lufkin Dennison formed a company whose revolutionary business plan was to manufacture the movement parts of watches so precisely that they would become fully interchangeable.
Davis, howard and Dennison's company relocated four years later to Waltham, Massachusetts, to become the Waltham Watch Company, a pioneer in the American system of watch manufacturing.
Watches remained a luxury until 1868, when G. F. Rosskopf, in Switzerland, introduced cheap watches of simplified design for working men. Roskopf was able to present his watch at the Universal Exhibition in Paris in 1868 and won a Bronze Medal.
In 1870 Georges Roskopf introduced a second design with a setting mechanism; this watch cost 25 francs.
Wrist watches with analogue faces came into common use in the 1860s, but weren't considered manly, and were mainly worn by women. Many regarded them as a joke and fad.
During the early part of the 20th century, increasing miniaturization, mass production and the need for accurate time keeping for the military, led to the migration of the male watch from the pockets to the wrist.
The Parisian jeweller Cartier is credited with creating the first popular men's wristwatch in 1904 for Brazilian aviation pioneer Alberto Santos-Dumont who found it hard to look at a pocket watch while flying. This square-faced watch became so popular it is still in production today in much the same form. Until then wrist clocks were thought of as a decorative item for women.
Wristwatches became essential items of battlefield equipment during World War I as the creeping barrage artillery tactic, developed during the war, required precise synchronization between the artillery gunners and the infantry advancing behind the barrage.
 |
| Early wrist watch by Waltham, worn by soldiers in World War I By Museumsfoto - Deutsches Uhrenmuseum |
Rolex began trading under that name in 1915. Their first watches were made in London.
1921
Rolex created the first ever waterproof and dustproof wristwatch, the Oyster, in 1926. The watch featured a hermetically sealed case which provided optimal protection for the movement.
Self-winding watches, responding to movements of the wearer's wrist, first appeared in the early 1920s.
One of the earliest Mickey Mouse goods to go on sale was the Mickey Mouse wristwatch. Introduced in 1933, the watch originally retailed at $3.75 and sold at a pace of two million annually.
The Hamilton Watch Company introduced the first electric watch on January 3, 1957. This had no mainspring, the mechanism being kept in motion by the mutual attraction of a permanent magnet and an electromagnet, which pushed the balance wheel.
Electronic movements, also known as quartz movements, have few or no moving parts, except a quartz crystal which is made to vibrate by the piezoelectric effect. (An electric charge that accumulates in certain solid materials such as crystals, in response to applied mechanical stress). The first quartz watch to be manufactured was the Seiko 35 SQ Astron, which hit the shelves on December 25, 1969.
 |
| Quartz movement of the Seiko Astron, 1969 By Museumsfoto - Deutsches Uhrenmuseum |
Watches finally went digital in the 1970s when the Hamilton Company developed the Pulsar, which sported lights in place of hands.
The first LCD watches were marketed as early as 1972 in which all moving parts are dispensed with. The time measurement is done by a quartz crystal oscillator linked to digital counting and display circuits. The time is usually indicated by liquid crystal display (LCD).
 |
| A Pulsar LED quartz watch (1976) By Alison Cassidy |
In 1999, Samsung launched the world's first watch phone, the SPH-WP10. It had 90-minutes of talk time with an integrated speaker and microphone.
FUN WATCH FACTS
In most advertisements, the time displayed on a watch is 10:10. This is because the 10:10 position is symmetrical, and the human brain tends to appreciate symmetry and orderliness. Also the 10:10 hands look “happy” due to the fact that the hands look like a smile.
Rolex is the largest single luxury watch brand with estimated revenues of around £1.75 billion.
A Swiss watchmaker created a series of 400 $10,000 watches that contain a strand of hair from Napoléon Bonaparte.
Wearing a Casio F-91W, a cheap digital watch sold around the world, was used as evidence to keep detainees at Guantánamo Bay.
NASA has special wristwatches that keep Mars time for employees working with the rovers.
Sources Europress Encyclopedia, The Independent
