The Watch On Your Wrist

The Watch On Your Wrist

Did you ever wonder where the watch on your wrist came from? Not the maker or the store, but who invented it? You'd have to look all the way back to Nuremberg to one Mister Peter Henlein.

Peter invented the pocket watch in the early 1500s, up until that time, watches were simply carried in the hand, which led to a lot of watches being lost and broken through being in the wrong place at the wrong time. This was a great scenario for watch makers but bad for watch owners. Peter thought it would be much more convenient to have the time piece on a strap and placed on one's lapel or in a pocket. Turns out Peter was right.

Early watches were made exclusively from iron and were quite heavy, in the early 1600s lighter metals such as brass and steel were used to create watch cases and making for an even lighter wrist watch.

Self winding wrist watches appeared via a patent in the late 1700s but a prototype that actually worked wasn't created until 1924; when Patek Philippe designed a working wrist watch. Electronic watches appeared on the scene in the mid-1950s.

Today, you have watches that can go skiing, rock climbing, diving deep beneath the ocean waves and come with usually light stainless steel casings and wrist bands made of materials ranging from stainless steel to titanium to rubber for the active watch wearer. Can you imagine attempting to get through your day from the office to say the tennis courts with a watch made from iron strapped to your arm? Watches have come a long way and new models continue to appear every year as more and more strides are made in the development of more accurate timepieces and lighter metals for construction of watches.
 posted by Watches Giant