Archive for the 'Living With Jewelry' Category

History of the Wrist Watch

Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009

From pocket watch to a fashion accessory. What was once, in the earliest years of portable watches, considered to be unsuitable for gentlemen and only for ladies, has developed today into a fashion utensil that everybody has. Meanwhile, the wristwatch is no longer only a tool to tell which time it is. It is a designer piece and can indicate much more than the time.

A great deal of mechanics in a small housing

The first verifiable portable timepiece was built in 1500. This was not a wristwatch, but more of a pocket watch. Through technical progress, which made it possible for people to house mechanics in an increasingly smaller space, the needed parts of the clockworks were able to be brought into a manageable form. In this way, the first pocket watch was born, which at the time was still the size of an egg.

The computerized wristwatch from Japan

A entirely different wristwatch came onto the market in the 1970’s from Japan, which had built its own watch industry. The new watch from Japan was no longer set on a mechanical basis, but on a computerized control. This watch extended its range of capability rapidly. The wrist watch no longer just showed the time. The tiny timepiece on the wrist now also knew the date, the day of the week and even knew whether a leap year was involved.

The wristwatch as jewelry

Today, the wristwatch is no longer just a watch. The wristwatch has become a fashion accessory. Wristwatches come in all colors and shapes conceivable. One can also buy compatible watches from all fashion collection. The current watches are dominated by the correct fashion trends. Despite these different trends, there is something for every taste. The small watches, which require spectacles to tell the time, and the extraordinary huge watches, which make it hard to walk upright. Anyway, one thing is certain: science is still likely to make so much progress – that the wristwatch will be found on the wrists of people for a long time, to answer the question as to what time it is.