History of a Watch

By sophie.ritter6
  • 1500

    First Watches

    The first watches were created in the early 1500’s by Peter Henlein. They typically only had one hand for the hours. The watch needed to be wound to get energy to work. These were not worn to tell time, and were more fashion accessories. The accuracy was poor so they didn’t work most of the time.

  • Pocket Watches

    Because watches kept being damaged, they designed a watch to fit into pockets for safekeeping. They were rounded and flattened. They put a piece of glass along the face to prevent the watch from getting harmed. To improve accuracy they tried to even out the torque curve.

  • Creation of the Balance Spring and Addition of Minute Hand

    The addition of the new balance spring technology to the balance wheel. Before this, it was a back and forth motion based on inertia. This made it sensitive. This balence spring made it resistant to disturbances. This reduced error and allowed for the minute hand to be added.

  • Temperature Compensation

    There was found to be errors in the balence wheel when the tempature changed. A new balence wheel that compensated for tempature changes was created by Pierre Le Roy. If the tempature rose, it would adjust and move faster to produce an accurate time.

  • Mass Produced

    Many machine tools were created that inspired the mass production of many items. It was modernized, and many different watch factories were created starting in 1843, the first being the British Watch Company.

  • Wristwatch

    At first, wristwatches were worn by women for fashion reasons. They became worn by men as-well by military men in the late 19th century. This was needed because it was difficult to see the time in battle when having to reach into their pockets. They were fitted with a leather band as well.

  • Electric Watches

    This started with the balence wheel of a watch by a solenoid. It had a self winding feature.

  • Quartz Watch

    The quartz watch was developed from contributions from Japan, America and the Swiss. This become the most accurate wristwatch to date. It would dominate the market of watches and is very accurate.

  • Smartwatch

    With the creation and wide spread of cellphones, a watch that works as a miniature smartphone was created to be worn on the wrist. It has a mobile operating system and the general capabilities of a smartphone. As of currently, these are very widely used and created by Apple, Microsoft and Google.