History of the Wrist Watch
June 11th, 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 women, has developed nowadays into a fashion utensil that everybody has. Meanwhile, the wristwatch is no longer only a instrument 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 made in 1500. This was not a wrist watch, but more of a pocket watch. Through technical advance, which made it possible for people to house mechanics in an increasingly smaller space, the required pieces 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 wrist watch from Japan
A totally new watch came onto the market in the 1970’s from Japan, which had developed its own watch industry. The new wristwatch from Japan was no more set on a mechanical basis, but on a computerized control. This wristwatch expanded its range of capacity quickly. The watch no more just showed the time. The little 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
Nowadays, the wrist watch is much more than a watch. The wrist watch has turn into a fashion accessory. Wristwatches come in all colours and forms conceivable. One can also buy harmonious watches from every fashion collection. The current watches are dominated by the correct fashion trends. Despite these different trends, there is something for every taste. The tiny watches, which require eyeglasses to tell the time, and the extravagant big watches, which make it difficult to walk upright. Anyway, one thing is clear: 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 respond to the question as to what time it is.
