Today, a wristwatch is considered as much of a status symbol as a device to tell time. In an age when cell phones and digital pagers display tiny quartz clocks, the mechanical wristwatch has slowly become less of an object of function and more a piece of modern culture.
The keeping of time goes all the way back to the beginning of civilization. Both historians and archeologists believe that stationary and portable sun-dials were probably developed in Egypt or Mesopotamia.The oldest extant sun-dial can be found in Egypt and dates back to 1500 BCE. We know that the early Egyptians used the pyramids as well as the obelisks as a forerunner to the sundial.
Wristwatch History :
It is said that one of the first watches was created in Italy around 1524 CE. The main problem for portable time keeping before the 1600s was the lack of driving power. Timepieces of that era were typically driven by weights making it very difficult for portable use. The inaccuracy of timepieces in this era were very common and most watches only had one hand that had to be wound at least twice a day.
It was not until 1675 CE that the implementation of a spiral balance spring changed timekeeping forever by taking timekeeping accuracy from fractions of an hour to fractions of a minute. It was then a second hand was added to the watch. At this time Roman numerals were added to mark the minutes. Eventually, due to rapid development, a watch would only have to be wound once a day instead of every twelve hours.
Wristlets, as they were called, were reserved for women, and considered more of a passing fad than a serious timepiece.Because of their size, few believed wristlets could be made to achieve any level of accuracy, nor could they withstand the basic rigors of human activity. Therefore, very few companies produced them in quantity, with the vast majority of those being small ladies’ models, with delicate fixed wire or chain-link bracelets.
This all started to change in the nineteenth century, when soldiers discovered their usefulness during wartime situations. Pocket watches were clumsy to carry and thus difficult to operate while in combat. Therefore, soldiers fitted them into primitive “cupped” leather straps so they could be worn on the wrist, thereby freeing up their hands during battle. It is believed that Girard-Perregaux equipped the German Imperial Naval with similar pieces as early as the 1880s, which they wore on their wrists while synchronizing naval attacks, and firing artillery.
In 1884, Greenwich, England was named the zero meridian, a worldwide acceptance of a starting point for global time zones. After 1900, advances in metallurgy improved the mechanisms, primarily because the balance spring was sensitive to temperature and position. Self-compensating balances were made with bi-metallic properties to compensate for high and low tempartures, and eventually a balance was created that could compensate for middle temperature errors. In 1905 the Rolex Watch Company was started by Hans Wilsdorf. 1914 saw the first wristwatch with an alarm. Seiko was started in Tokyo in 1924.
The Quartz Revolution :
While electrically driven clocks had been used in observatories since the 1930s, and experiments had been made with electrically driven wristwatches, it was the quartz technology that came up in the late 1960s and early 1970s that marked the beginning of a new era. Now, it was possible to achieve daily rates of one second or less in a wristwatch with a rather cheap technology that could be produced in enormous numbers. A split-seconds chronograph, an alarm, a perpetual calendar, complications that had been the pride of watchmakers for centuries, now only required some additional instructions in the chip that controlled the watch.
The social impact of this new technology on the Swiss watch industry was enormous. Suddenly, “watchmakers” became superfluous - all that was required was an occasional change of the battery.The wristwatch, formerly a prestigious gift and an item that you cared for, became an article that was about as exciting as a pocket comb. If it didn't work any more, you threw it away.
In Switzerland, dozens of companies, among them some old and traditional names, went out of business - what business could you do with a product that nobody wanted any more? Others adopted to the demands of the market and changed their production accordingly - if people want quartz watches, give them quartz watches. While I am writing this, I have an Eterna catalog from the early 1980s before me - really sad to look at. There is still the logo with the five balls symbolizing the ball-bearing that was found in the first “Eternamatic,” but all watches in this catalog are quartz-driven.
Today, watchmaking is a diverse and flourishing multi-billion dollar worldwide industry. While quartz technologies such as kinetic watches and radio-controlled watches have generated significant enthusiasm. For consumers who prefer the tradition and artistic elegance of mechanical watches, they too are still in production.
Types of Watches :
Analog - An analog watch is simply a watch that has "hands". Analog watches may have a second hand which moves in a continuous motion or no second hand at all. On some style watches when the second hand moves at two second intervals it is a signal that the battery is low and needs to be replaced.
Digital - A digital watch is one in which the time is displayed in numbersAn "LCD" watch uses a liquid crystal display to display to display the time. The numbers are usually gray or black on a lighter background.An "LED" watch uses a light emitting diode to display the time. This style watch usually has a button that you press to see the time and the numbers are bright red.
Quartz - A quartz watch is the most common watch in the marketplace today, it runs on a battery. A tiny quartz crystal in the watch vibrates at a very stable frequency which keeps the time instead of the traditional mechanical movement.
Mechanical - A mechanical watch operates using a series of gears. A spring in the watch is wound to power the gears. A jeweled watch uses gems such as rubies at points of friction inside the "movement." A watch containing 17 jewels is considered a fine watch.
Automatic - An automatic watch is a self winding watch. The watch is designed so the motion of your wrist continually winds the watch when you wear it.
Pocket watch - Pocket watch is a timepiece meant to be carried in the pocket, rather than worn on the wrist. Pocket watches predate wristwatches by about 400 years.Despite its long history, the absence of exacting mass manufacturing meant the accuracy of pocket watches varied greatly from watchmaker to watchmaker, even into the 19th century.
A pocket watch is used with a gold or silver watch chain. The type of chain depends on where the pocket watch will be worn: in a vest pocket or pants pocket. The T-bar chain slips through a vest buttonhole; the spring ring chain attaches to a belt loop; and they belt clip chain attaches to the belt itself. A shorter-style chain features a decorative fob on the end, and is meant to simply hang from the pocket freely. In all cases, the other end of the chain attaches to a small ring at the top of the pocket watch, for easy retrieval.
Moon - A moon watch has a second dial that rotates behind the regular dial which has an opening in it. The rotating dial that changes as the dial rotates showing the various phases of the moon or the sun during the day and the moon at night.
Diving - A divers watch is water resistant to a depth of fifty or one hundred meters or more and is marked on the dial. The bezel of a diving watch is designed to rotate in one direction, this function allows the diver to determine the amount of dive time or remaining air time. Instead of the regular push-pull type of crown, diving watches often have a screw down crown to create a more effective water seal. The band on a diving watch is usually made of rubber or a similar material so the salt water does not deteriorate it. The numbers or hour marks are usually larger and often glow in the dark to improve readability under water on watches designed for diving.
Day/Date - A day/date watch has a little window on the dial which shows the day and date. Some watches may only show the date and others, such as Seiko watches, will show the day in English and Spanish
Chronograph watches - Around 1910, the chronograph, also refered to as stopwatch, was introduced as a wrist watch. Soon it was a very sought after type of watch, only to gain in popularity through the years. When the Swatch watch company started the production of affordable and fashionable chrono's in early 1990, they sold like hot cakes, as were the later versions. Nowadays, almost every respectable watch company has a chonograph in its collection.
The chronograph was invented by a Frenchman, named Rieussec, back in 1821. Literally, this was the only timepiece that bore the name Chronograph rightly. It actually wrote on the dial with a small pen attached to the index. The length of the arc of the circle displayed the time that had passed. The index was fixed while the dial turned. The Greek words chronos and graph stand for resp. time and writing. Chronoscope would be a more accurate name for chronographs, since there is no real "writing" involved anymore.In 1822, Rieussec was granted a patent for his invention.
Chronometer - A watch that conforms to strict standards of accuracy set by an official institute in Switzerland. Not to be confused with chronograph.
Speciality Watches - In addition to wrist watches, there are other common styles such as pendant, brooch and ring watches. It is interesting to note that pendant watches are sometimes designed so they hang in what appears to be an upside down position, but all you have to do is look down to see what time it is when you are wearing one. There are watches on the market today that will actually monitor your pulse, these are useful for people who exercise and keep track of their pulse rates while jogging, etc... A nurse's watch is usually made of stainless steel, is water resistant and has a red sweep second hand to make it easier to read when taking pulse rates. There are many other specialty watches on the market. Some are made for pilots, race car drivers, etc... and others have additional functions such as calculators, telephone directories, etc...
Valuable :
As a rule, a chronograph is quite valuable. It is more expensive than a normal or automatic watch, due to the complexity and craftmenship necessary for manufacturing. That is why maintainance and repair are quite costly. Prices of "second hand" chronographs start at about $100 and go up according to availability and complexity. Of coarse, brand name has a great influence on the value.
