Bench Watches

The first ever mechanical time-keeping devices that could be worn by a person instead of mounted to a wall were called clock-watches. They possessed only a single hour hand, and had to be wound twice each day. And of course, they were notoriously inaccurate, with poor quality movement and heavy, unwieldy pieces.

The next stage of advancement was the ever-so-adorable pocket watch. In the 1600′s, the upper crust was extraordinarily concerned with fashion, and apparently the pocket watch was crafted after King Charles II of England brought the fashion of the waistcoat to hip gentlemen in Europe. Pocket watches still exist (in a sort of meta, anachronistic kind of way), but the originals were quite inaccurate. It wasn’t until 1657 and the invention of the balance spring that minute and even second hands were used. In 1765, chronometers started being used, and pretty delicate temperature compensations further whittled down the margin of error on fine pocket watches.

In the early 1800′s, what’s known as a lever escapement was created by a watch worker Thomas Mudge, and suddenly pocket watches were much more viable and popular, and not only for the rich. In 1850 with the onset of the industrial revolution, humanity suddenly realized the potential of mass production, and something of a ‘pop culture’ obsession grew around pocket watches and later, wristwatches.

Wristwatches has actually been in use for quite sometime by women, who were thought not to possess the correct garb (or enough masculinity) to successfully carry a pocket watch everywhere, and thus were reduced to strapping timepieces to their wrists. It wasn’t until about the 20th century that wristwatches became a man’s item, as well.

The original wristwatches were called ‘trench’ watches, and they were much larger than today’s wristwatches. In 1923, John Harwood revolutionized the watch-making world when he invented a watch that could wind itself, and pocket watches were history.

In the 1950′s, electric watches came onto the scene, and in 1969 quartz watches graced the world stage. As accuracy was pinpointed to the perfectly predictable oscillations of these fine new instruments, wrist watches became more about performance and less about fashion, though of course they still remain a staple accessory and beautiful pieces of technology.

Today, many fear that with the onset of cell phones, iStuff, and hand held computing devices, watches will go the way of the dinosaurs. Why bother strapping and antiquated technology to your wrist when you can access a multitude of information with your electronics?

Because there is something timeless about the timekeeping of a watch- the slow, inexorable ticking of our passage through the 4th dimension that can’t be captured on the glowing screen of an iPhone. There will always be a place for beautiful, functional wristwatches in the world.

Copyright (c) 2008 WatchesOnNet
Whether it is the cars we drive or the watches we wear, all of them started with an idea and a dream. Whether it was by accident or planned, there is no way that the creators of technology could have imagined that their initial designs would have blossomed into the amazing products that we have today.
The next time you look at your watch realize that Peter Henlein invented the first pocket watch in Nuremberg, Germany. It wasn’t very accurate, which is sort of ironic since Germans are known for their accuracy. While this was the first portable watch, it was not the first wristwatch.
The first wristwatch was worn and created by the French mathematician and philosopher, Blaise Pascal. He simply attached string to his pocket watch, and, Walla, a future industry was created. So the next time, you I look to see what time it is on your Breitling chronometer, or whatever timepiece it is that you wear, know that the foundation for it was built by a man in Germany who took his clock with him wherever he went. Even though he was probably always either too late or too early for most of his appointments, no doubt he was the talk of whatever meeting he did attend with his portable watch. So it might be safe to say he was the first person to create a buzz with the timepiece that he was carting around. Moreover, go figure a mathematician and philosopher from France who probably was just too lazy to take his pocket watch out of his pocket, created one of the largest industries in the world. Of course this is in jest and these men were pioneers of their day.
So why is it important to know the history of your designer watch and the background of watches in general? With so many watches out there to choose from it can be very confusing. Do you buy a chronometer? How does that chronometer stack up against that simple Swatch which recently caught your attention? Learn what suits your needs. Learn for what purposes those three little dials that you have never quite figured out how to use, were really intended. You probably wouldn’t by a car without looking under the hood, why not do the same with your timepiece?
Now that we know who created the first watch, maybe next time we will find out which companies were the first to capitalize on it.