When was the wristwatch created

From the beginnings of civilization, humans have been trying to perfect their timekeeping methodology and tools. The earliest dated timekeeping devices are sundials from the 4th millennium BC in Ancient Egypt. Since then, numerous technological advances arised in horology as water clocks, the hourglass, mechanical clocks, automatic clocks, digital clocks, and many more have been invented. Today, we will delve deeper into the history of mechanical watches and its impact. Mechanical clocks first appeared as massive, weight-driven devices installed in churches and buildings.

The oldest mechanical watch on record is the watch that was built into the Dunstable Priory in England in For centuries, the bell of these massive clocks sufficed as the only time-telling method for most people living in villages. Yet, by the 15th century, a smaller, more portable clock started establishing its prominence in the household due to its increasing accessibility. From here, the next natural progression was to create clocks small enough to carry around or wear: hence, the creation of the watch.

With these small clocks, it was inevitable that pendant watches were soon become outdated and forgotten by fashion. This moment came in , when n Charles II of England introduced waistcoats — small pocket watches that were connected to the suit with the small chain. This fashion trend soon swept across Europe and North America, where pocket watches were used as an expensive luxury male items and pendant watches as female items.

Widespread population gained access to pocket watches only in second half of 18th century when popular lever escapement enabled clockmakers to produce cheap and very precise watches. Initiative to standardize train time in United States finally came in , which was responsible for large expansion of precise clocks all around the world.

But, fashion change struck again during the World War I when pocket watches gained competition from small, extremely portable, and easy to use wrist watches. With the improved technologies of automatic winding, and small designs, wrist watches very quickly became the most popular type of portable clocks on the world. However, archive documents showing only four Ref.

It must be noted that the Ref. Nevertheless, the Calatrava Ref. In terms of geopolitical change, war is greatest promoter of it. From as in , German time was imposed upon the German occupied territories, some of which still prevails today under the name of Central European Time while London retained its place as prime meridian of the world. Similarly, in Japanese occupied territories, time zones were similarly altered.

Indeed, prior to World War II, Paris and London shared the same time zone — which was logical given that solar time for Paris to the east is only nine minutes ahead of the Greenwich meridian; that said,France had resisted the very idea until , well after the meridian of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich was made the reference point for zero degrees longitude.

In essence these world time watches became horological time capsules for the era in which they were made; each dial reflecting different cities and their associated time zones changing to reflect the political climate. Under German-occupation, France switched to Central European time where it was widely assumed that afterwards they would revert back so Patek Philippe continued to put London and Paris on the same time zone until the s, making these watches highly collectible.

Watching world time watches and their dials evolve with each new model provides us a literal reference point of the milestones of the history of the world -like each dial captured a geopolitical reality during the time period that the watch was launched. For as long as there has been time zones, State actors have altered and changed time zones for a variety of political or economic reasons and the watch dials often reflected these changes.

Longines, then called Agassiz, produced world time watches commemorating Victory in Europe after the Nazis surrendered to Allied Powers. This one was for Winston Churchill. George on the dial side is done fairly exquisitely, the engraving of the world map leaves much to be desired. Nevertheless, still reflective of the period.