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1400
Early Watches
Early watches were between the size of a clock and the size of a modern watch. Clock-watches were fastened on clothing or worn on the neck. They only had a hour hand and had to be wound twice a day. Later in the century there was a trend for unusually-shaped watches. Clock-watches shaped like books, animals, fruit, stars, flowers, insects, crosses, and even skulls were made. These early clock-watches were not worn to tell the time. They were made as jewelry and novelties for the nobility. -
Pocket Watches
Styles changed in the 17th century and men started to wear watches in pockets instead of around their necks. Women continued to wear their watches like a pendant. Instead of the metal covers of the clock watches, the faces of the pocket watches were made of glass around 1610. -
The Balance Spring and The Minute Hand
The balance spring was created either by Robert Hooke or Christiaan Huygens. The balance spring greatly improved the accuracy of the watch. The watch’s accuracy was improved by several hours a day, or just 10 minutes a day. This lead to the addition of the minute hand in 1680 in Britain and 1700 in France. -
Change of Style
New innovations such as the cylinder and lever escapements, allowed watches to become much thinner. This created a change of style. Pocket watches went out of style and were only worn by the poor. -
Mass Production
Throughout the 17th and 18th century, the British had dominated in the production of watches, but had mainly focused on selling them to the richer people. In the United States, Aaron Lufkin Dennison started a factory in Massachusetts that used interchangeable parts and by 1861 he was running a successful business. -
Key-Less Winding and The Pin Pallet Escapement
Key winding was replaced by keyless winding, when the watch is wound by the crown. The pin pallet escapement, the inexpensive version of the lever escapement, was invented by Georges Frederic Roskopf was used in mass producing cheaper watches, which allowed ordinary workers to own watches. -
Wristwatches
By the mid nineteenth century, most watchmakers made a variety of wristwatches, usually marketed as bracelets, for women. Wristwatches were first worn by military men towards the end of the 19th century. Using pocket watches while on a horse or while in battle was hard, so officers began to strap the watches to their wrist. Early models basically standard pocket watches on a leather strap, but by the early 20th century, people began producing the wristwatches we see today. -
World War I and Trench Watches
The creeping barrage artillery tactic required precise synchronization between the artillery gunners and the infantry behind the barrage. Service watches made during the war were especially designed for trench warfare and had luminous dials and unbreakable glass. Military pilots found the watches more convenient than pocket watches. -
The Electric Watch
The first generation of electric watches came out in the 1950s. The hands still moved by using a wheel train. In mechanical watches the break resistant 'white metal' mainsprings, shockproof balance pivots, and self winding mechanism became normal. -
The Quartz Watch
The higher Q factor of the resonator, along with quartz's low temperature coefficient, created better accuracy than some of the best mechanical watches, while the removal of all moving parts made the watch more shock-resistant and got rid of the need for cleaning. The first digital electronic watch with an LED display was developed in 1970 by Pulsar. -
The Radio-Controlled Wristwatch
In this type of watch, the watch's quartz oscillator is set to the correct time daily by coded radio time signals broadcast by government-operated time stations received by a radio receiver in the watch. This lets the watch to have the same accuracy as the atomic clocks which control the time signals. -
The Smartwatch
The Linux Watch was the first smartwatch, which created in 1998 by Steve Mann. Samsung launched the world's first watch phone in 1999. It was named the SPH-WP10. It had an antenna and a monochrome LCD screen, built-in speaker and mic, and 90 minutes of talk time. IBM made a prototype of a wristwatch that was running Linux. The first version had 6 hours battery life and it got extended to 12 in its more advanced version. -
The Atomic Wristwatch
The atomic watch is based on a chip developed by the Chip Scale Atomic Clock program. The watch was designed by John Patterson, who decided to design a watch based on it. He was financed by a Kickstarter campaign. Because of the large 1½ inch chip, the watch is large and rectangular. It must be recharged every 30 hours.
