The History of Watches and Watchmaking

The keeping of time dates back to the beginning of civilization. Historians ( believe that portable sundials were probably developed in Egypt and Mesopotamia before 1500 BC. One of the first actual watches was created in Italy almost 3000 years later, around 1524 AD. But these timepieces were nothing like the watches we've come to know today, and normally had to be wound at least twice a day. The implementation of a spiral balance spring in 1675 AD changed watch making forever. This innovation allowed the accuracy of a watch to go from fractions of an hour to fractions of a minute. With a spiral balance spring, a watch would only have to be wound once a day instead of twice.

Throughout the 1700's, watch technology continued to develop. John Harrison made one of the most significant advancements in 1761. He made a clock that was so accurate it was used to measure longitude during sea voyages. Over an 80-day period, Harrison sailed from England to Jamaica and his watch lost only 5 seconds. Harrison 's clock, called the Marine Chronograph, was a great breakthrough in the timekeeping industry, and saved many ships from crashing (many crashes and deaths prior to this breakthrough were due to faulty time and direction equipment). More modern methods like using jewels as bearings were also developed in this time frame. Self-winding watches began to be produced in the last quarter of the century and as the 1800's were ushered in, the pocket chronometer became a readily available and accurate watch.

Until the early 1800's, all watches were hand-finished. But, during the beginning of the 1800's, Eli Terry developed machines, patterns and techniques that produced clock parts that were exactly alike. This was a huge breakthrough in timekeeping technology, as parts could now be mass-produced and interchanged from one clock to another. This allowed the price of watches and clocks to drop significantly, and consequently they were no longer the exclusive luxury of the wealthy. Now most people had at least one timekeeping device; a significant change from previous years.

Throughout the mid to late 1800's, improved technology and better steel works led to more precise watches. To make sure a watch kept its accuracy over long periods of time, bearings were made from jewels. In the 1850's, America began to lead the time industry by manufacturing watches in mass volume. Later on, Europe followed and began producing timepieces in mass quantities as well. This technology allowed the price of watches to continue to decrease, allowing more people to have a watch.

In the late 1800's, many well-known watch companies that we know today opened the doors of business. Most watch companies started in Europe, often times in Switzerland , subsequently moving to the United States . One of the oldest and most well-known watch companies in the world, Tissot, started in 1853 in Switzerland . Tissot's mission was to offer the general public a range of high-quality timepieces at an affordable price. Other watch companies like Waltham , Elgin and Hamilton also sprang up, using the technology of mass volume production, interchangeable parts and other new innovations to attract more business.

From the period of 1860 to 1915, many noteworthy innovations and events took place in the history of time and watches. In 1868, Patek Philippe produced the first wristwatch. In 1871 Aaros Dennison of International Watch Company (IWC) invented the waterproof case. In 1875, Joseph Bulova moved from Bohemia to New York City and started Bulova watches - still a leading watch manufacturer today. In 1888, Cartier produced the first ladies wristwatch with diamond and gold bracelets. In 1902, the first Omega wristwatch was produced. In the same year, wristwatch sales continued to soar, as 93,000 wristwatches were sold in Germany alone. During the latter part of this period, many well-known watch companies started business; Longines started watch production in 1910, while household names like Santos-Dumont and Citizen began business in 1911.

As the 20th century progressed, watch advancements accelerated. The first quartz clock, accurate to within 1-2 thousandths of a second per day, was developed in 1928 by W.A. Marrison of Bell Laboratories. Quartz technology was subsequently adapted for use in wristwatches. In 1952, battery-powered watches became available and very popular. Another great breakthrough in watch-making came in 1967 when the atomic clock was invented. This clock used the oscillations of cesium-133 atoms to tell time that was practically void of any error. During the 1970's, electronic watches with LCD and LED displays were extremely popular as they were highly functional and very inexpensive. Improvements and innovations also centered around the quartz movement, improving batteries and the new atomic watches. By 1998, keeping time was more popular than ever with about 500,000,000 watches sold each year.

Some of the most exciting watch technologies have been developed in the last 10 years. And yet, ironically, the majority of Luxury and Fine Swiss watches are still hand made masterpieces which primarily employ many of the technologies developed over 100 years ago. Why-because these watches represent true craftsmanship and haute horologie. Some of these masterpieces take a master watchmaker more than one year to make and are truly unique. Luxury has its appeal.