Evolution Of The Watch
The watch as we know it today came into being out of the necessity of
portability in the shipping and navigation industry in the early 15th century.
The problem they had was that while the latitude could be measured by looking at
the stars, the only way to determine longitude was by comparing the midday time
of the local longitude to a European meridian like Paris or Greenwich. This was
a very unreliable way of doings things until John Harrison introduced the
chronometer.
The first fairly accurate clocks used weighted pendulums, which by their very
nature were of no use at sea or in a portable watch. The invention of the spring
mechanism brought in the development of “pocket clockes” in Tudor England
allowing clockmakers the ability to put a time keeping device in a small,
mobile, container.
The very first pocket watch was created by Peter Henlein in 1524 and it is
rumored that Henry VIII had one of these kept on a chain around his neck. These
early watches only had an hour hand, the inaccuracy of the watches at this time
made a minute hand useless. The evolution of the miniaturization process of
these spring based designs allowed for the making of portable watches that would
work at sea. The Waltham Watch Company founded in 1850 by Aaron Dennison
pioneered the manufacturing of interchangeable parts and is still a top
watchmaker today.
In the 1868 the first wristwatch was made by the Patek Philippe company, a joint
venture of Antoinne Patek and French watchmaker Adrien Phillippe, the inventor
of the keyless wind mechanism. It was considered an accessory for women until
the 2oth century. Because of its exclusivity, luxury tag, low volume production
and cost, Patek Philippe lost the market and lost much of its business. The
Stern family took over the firm in 1929.
Patek Philippe remains a force in the quartz watch industry introducing not only
the perpetual calendar, chronograph, and minute repeater but also the most
complicated mechanical watch ever made. In 1989, the company created the Calibre
89, in celebration of their 150th anniversary. This watch has 33 complications
including the date of Easter, a thermometer, a sunrise time, equation of time
and more!
In the early 1900’s, the wristwatch became popular with men due to the
Brazilian inventor Alberto Santos-Dumont who wanted a more convenient way of
checking time while in the aircraft he was working on. He approached his friend,
Louis Cartier and asked him for a watch that he could read easier and Cartier
designed a leather-band wristwatch for him that he never took off.
Because Cartier was a popular figure in Paris, he was able to sell these watches
to many other men and by the Fist World War, officers in all armies were turning
to the wristwatches because it was much easier in the battlefield to just look
at a watch on their wrist than to have to reach in their pocket for a pocket
watch.
Army contractors began issuing cheap, reliable, mass produced watches to
artillery and infantry officers so they could synchronize their attacks. At the
end of the war, these European and American veterans were allowed to return home
with their wristwatches helping to make them popular among middle class Western
civilian culture. Today almost everyone wears a wristwatch as a direct result of
this introduction in World War 1.
Article Source:
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Gregg Hall is a business consultant and author for many
online and offline businesses and lives in Navarre Florida with his 16 year old
son. For a great selection of fine
watches go to www.finewristwatchesonline.com