The early history and the Revolution Of The Watches

The earliest and largest watches considered more of the pocket watch types, were invented within Tudor, England in the sixteenth century. These timepieces weren't worn around

the wrist then but mostly as a necklace around the neck due to their larger designs.
These pocket watches became more commonplace within the earlier seventeenth century and were crafted to be more accurate in their time keeping as well.A man named Mr. John

Harrison was a watchmaker by trade and had taught himself this craft completely with great and wonderful results. Mr. Harrison created a greater accuracy within watches of his

times and found that the exact time could help in determining precise longitudinal locations of the ships for the Captains. He worked endlessly for over ten years to invent only

four Chronometer Harrison Marine watches in the latter seventeenth century; these miraculous watches were also the size of smaller dinner plates. Through many tests by the

Queen's Captains these watches proved their worthiness to her and Mr. Harrison then received $20,000 in pounds as a prize for his creative and helpful inventions by Queen Anne

of England herself.

The history of wrist watches began with a man named Patik Phillippe in the early nineteenth century. Wrist watches were worn at this time mostly by women as accessories; the men

carried pocket styled watches as their timepieces. During this century, the watch company called Rolex was opened and owned by Mr. Hans Wilsdorf in the year 1905. Wrist watches

gained an added quality by the addition of an alarm within them in the year 1914 and the watch company called Seiko was opened in the year 1924 within Tokyo.In the twentieth

century, wrist watches were very popular, but some men still loved their tried and true pocket watches and these were still being manufactured in larger quantities up until the

2nd World War when production decreased dramatically. In the year 1952, wrist watches that were powered by batteries instead of winding mechanisms were out on the markets; this

was a large and wonderful advancement within the timepiece era.

Watches, which were electronic, were the most popular in the 70's and in the 90's a reemergence of mechanical watches happened due to vintage and nostalgic wants in the watch

markets of that time. Over 25% of Swiss made watches are all mechanical and not electronic. They keep to the original quality that first endeared these timepieces to their

clientele and faithful customers.

In the 1868 the first wristwatch was made by the Pate Philippe company, a joint venture of Antoine Patek and French watchmaker Adrian Philippe, 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 Replica Rolex Watches for him

that he never took off.

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 clocks" 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 Heinlein 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.