Portable clocks were firstly carried in pockets and then worn with pendants. Changes in the way we lived our lives brought about the birth of the wrist watch. This article chronicles both how the wrist watch came to be, as well as recounting the famous watch makers, the watches they made famous and what makes these watches so collectible.
Over the centuries clocks have been used as a status symbol by those who wear them. Their precision, elegance and convenience are just some of the attributes that clocks and watches represent. Often they are bought purely for their aesthetic looks. and at other times they are bought because of their technical attributes like being precise to the last second or even millisecond. This is what makes clocks and watches so collectible and in some cases they can command high sums of money.
Whether you collect the new high precision watches or ones that come from a past era, the fact is that over the years this hobby has become a high turnover business. Collecting watches is in a lot of circles regarded as a wise form of investing.
At the start of the last century the clocks that were available for men or women were firstly pocket clocks, and then clocks that held by a pendant attached to the lining of jackets or corsets. The advent of war, industrialization, and the development of the sport activities, brought over new trends which extended to not only the way we dressed, but also how we carried our clocks.
It is said that it was a nanny who invented wrist watches at around the end of the 19th century, who fixed a clock around her wrist by using a silk band. The first watches to be made were in fact smaller models of pocket clocks that were fitted with a leather strap. Once this product hit the market newer designs started to be produced based around this same concept.
Soon after the design, wrist "clocks" began to diversify away from the classical round shape that had been in vogue up until that time. From 1913 onwards more and more watches started to be developed in all shapes and styles. From the classical round shaped wrist watch other styles and shapes of watches started to emerge which were characterized and named by their shape. These are watches which are very much sought after. There were other numerous watch makers who added other features to the watches like lunar phases, month and day most of which are found in modern watches now.
Early watches of the 1910s to 1930s are what define all the makes of watches that we see and wear today.
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One of our favorites are the Openworks watch, its created to work with movement, no winding necessary.
The look and high quality make this a versatile piece. It can be worn with a suit or dress up casual jeans. Should you ever be so lucky to get one then make sure you hang on to it - preferably to your wrist.