The wearable watch has been in fashion for five centuries, but it wasn’t always a wristwatch or even just a pocket watch. The movements and designs both took decades and centuries to evolve from a fashion accessory void of practical timekeeping purpose to beautiful and practical tools of the highest precision. Read the history to see how your favorite watchmakers influenced the history of horology.

Clock Watches

The first watch was created in the 16th century after the development of the main spring. They were thought of as portable clocks. The first watches were called “clock-watches,” which is where the current term comes from. They were decorative pendants worn on a necklace. Though there was an hour hand, the time was inaccurate in most cases and the clock watches merely served as an accessory.

Pocket Watches
The design of the watch slowly changed and improved over two centuries. The clock watch had evolved into a pocket watch and to fit into the pocket of trousers, the watch design became flatter without sharp edges and with a glass cover. Early pocket watches were also inaccurate due to the nature of the mainspring which did not produce constant force, thus the timekeeping slowed as the force slowed.

Pocket watches were developed and by 1657, with the invention of the balance spring, the accuracy of the watch became accurate within 10 minutes. This led to the addition of a minute hand by 1700. With increased accuracy, previously-benign mechanical issues were brought to the forefront, which led to a two-century period of acute timekeeping innovation.

The Enlightenment
During the Age of Enlightenment, watches were viewed as instruments with a scientific purpose, which led to further development and accuracy in timekeeping. For purposes of accuracy during sea voyages and exploration, marine chronometers were improved drastically during this time. These developments were later used in watches.

During this time, the problems with the balance spring were improved greatly. Watchmakers discovered that the spring’s inability to cope with temperature changes affected their accuracy. Temperature sensitive balance springs were developed so watches were accurate within seconds.

Vacheron Constantin
Founded in 1755, Vacheron Constantin is one of the oldest watch companies in the world. In the 1800s, Georges-Auguste Leschot, while working for the watch company, invented a watch part that allowed interchangeable parts in watchmaking. This made the mass production of watches possible.

In 1851, using interchangeable parts, an American watchmaker started a watch factory that became successful as the Waltham Watch Company. The company was the first to mass produce watches.

The Railroad
Accurate timekeeping was necessary for railroaders throughout and the demand drove innovation in watch precision. In the late 1800s the first railroad chronometer inspection system was developed. The first watch precision contest took place in 1876. During this time keyless winding was also developed, and accuracy was only within error of a few seconds a day.

Wristwatches
It’s unclear who invented the first wristwatch. Some say that Breguet was commissioned by the Queen of Naples Caroline Murat in 1810. However, in 1571 Robert Dudley gifted Elizabeth I what was called an arm watch, likely the same as a wristwatch. Historically, wristwatches were worn primarily by women.

At the end of the 19th century, the military needed to discretely synchronize missions and attacks, so they would strap their pocket watches to their wrists. Early wristwatches were essentially pocket watches with a leather strap.

Louis Cartier was one of the first watchmakers to specifically design wristwatches for commercial sale after his friends and early aviator Alberto Santos-Dumont asked Cartier to design a watch for aviating. The watch is now known as the Santos.

After WWI, the public opinion — which in large considered wristwatches a women’s fashion — shifted and there was a large demand for men’s wristwatches.

Quartz Watches

After the development of a battery-powered watch, the ground was laid for the invention of quartz watches. Swiss and Japanese watchmakers developed the first quartz wristwatches. This innovation greatly increased the accuracy of wristwatches to error within only 12 seconds a year. More importantly, this development led to a drastic decrease in the price of watches. They became an affordable accessory and US-based and Japan-based companies began mass producing low-cost quartz wristwatches.

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