A Brief History of Watchmaking

The history of watchmaking began long ago through centuries of innovation, craftsmanship, and cultural changes.

Prior to the 14th century and before mechanical timekeeping, civilizations used the natural world around them to tell the passing of time.  This included tracking the seasons, the moon and stars, sunset to sunset or sunrise to sunrise, and the creation of calendars.  To measure the passing of time during a given day, sundials, water clocks, candle clocks, and hourglasses were the main mechanisms for many centuries.  Sundials were first known to be used in Egypt as early as 1500 BC.  They were also used prominently throughout the Greece and Roman Empires, using the sun as the source for marking the passing of time in hours.  However, this only worked well on sunny days and could only mark the passing hours during daylight. Water clocks or the clepsydra were most popular in countries such as Egypt, Babylon and China, though they required a continuous refilling of water jars.  While sundials and water clocks were more for public use, Candle clocks and hourglasses would be used for indoor use.

By around the1300s, large public mechanical clocks would start to appear throughout southern Europe, mainly located at churches or town squares. The clocks were weight-driven mechanisms that were used to regulate time. They were not the most accurate and often required the use of sundials to synchronize the correct time.  The first mechanical escapement called the Verge escapement, was an important innovation that allowed for more precise timekeeping and would be considered an important step towards portable timepieces.

At around 1510, German locksmith Peter Henlein would invent the first portable watch. These watches were generally worn as pendants and only available to the wealthy. However, they were not very accurate or reliable for timekeeping and were considered more of a status symbol and a piece of jewelry.

It wouldn’t be until 1675 that Christiaan Huygens would invent the balance spring (hairspring) that would significantly improve the accuracy of portable timekeeping devises. Other improvements would see the introduction of Jeweled bearings, the Fusée and chain mechanisms, and the minute hand as innovations that would greatly improve accuracy.

According to some experts, the 18th and 19th century are considered The Golden Age of Watchmaking.  While Swiss and British watchmakers would lead in innovations of marine chronometers for navigating the seas, prominent watchmakers such as Breguet would develop important inventions such as the Tourbillon and the first shock protection systems. In 1778, Belgian watchmaker Hubert Sarton would unveil an automatic winding mechanism featuring a central rotor.  But despite these technological advancements and for much of that time period, watches were still mainly for the wealthy and nobles.  It would take American ingenuity and a war to bring reliable functional watches to the masses.

Breguet watch 1785, bought by the Duc de Choiseul-Praslin, Author: PHGCON, Source: CC

In the late 19th century it would be American watch manufacturers that would master the art of industrialization and mass production of watchmaking, leading to better quality control, standardization, interchangeable parts, and affordability. The Waltham Watch Company would revolutionize watch manufacturing with the introduction of interchangeable parts.  While the Waterbury Clock Company (later Timex) helped to bring affordable pocket watches to the masses.  And let’s not forget how Hamilton helped in the effort to reduce train wrecks by producing some of the most accurate time pieces of the time.

The 20th century saw even greater innovations, the rise of prominent watch manufacturers, and a watch revolution and crisis. After WWI, the popularity of wristwatches grew and gained greater prominence as soldiers recognized the need for accessible timepieces during combat.  Thus, the first wearable technology for the masses would be the wristwatch - and not just simply a piece of jewelry, but for practical necessity. From the 1920s–1950s we saw more widespread use of automatic (self-winding) movements. Waterproofing and dust proofing would come from brands like Rolex that would lead to the diving watch, while pilot watches and chronograph watches would be developed for aviation and auto racing.

Swiss brands like Rolex, Omega, and Patek Philippe, would all but set the standard as prominent watchmakers and high horology, essentially cementing Switzerland as the traditional center of fine watchmaking.  But in the 1950’s American watchmaker Hamilton would invent the first fully electric watch and first digital watch in the 70s, American Bulova would introduce the Accutron as the first electromechanical watch, and in 1969, Japanese Seiko would introduced the Astron, the first quartz wristwatch that would lead to the quartz crisis of the 1970s.

The quartz crisis would be a challenging time for many established watchmakers, especially the Swiss.  The Swiss watch industry was nearly decimated overnight because of the introduction of more accurate, easy to produce, and affordable quartz watches becoming more widely available.  But the Swiss watch industry would find new life with the fun and affordable Swatch quartz watches. This would help lead to a resurgence of interest in Swiss and mechanical watchmaking that persist to this day, despite the greater technological advancements in timekeeping.

You could argue that the first smartwatches were the digital watches of the 1970s and 80s. But in 2015 the watch industry would once again see another transformation with the rise of the Apple Watch and other smartwatches.  Smartwatches provide the ability to track your fitness, send or receive communications, and provide health-tracking features right on your wrist (can we say that the Dick Tracy watch is finally here?), while mechanical watches are now, once again, seen more as luxury items.  In fact, many consider any traditional watch, at any price point, a luxury due to the availability of smartphones and smartwatches.  However, another revolution may be just on the horizon, as some are foregoing their smartwatches and returning to traditional watches due to growing privacy concerns, corporate tracking, and notification fatigue. Only time will tell…

The ability to measure time has evolved over the centuries, but the biggest impact it has had on society has been mostly felt in the last 130 years. The science of time and time keeping has transformed our modern society.  Nearly every aspect of our lives are centered around the concept of time and timekeeping. The industrialization of watchmaking brought watches to the masses and the wristwatch became the first wearable technology for the masses.  The quartz crisis brought us even greater accuracy and reliability in timekeeping, and the smartwatch provides greater access to tools and resources we could not have imagined just 10 years ago.  And yet the mechanical watch is still here.  Though the mechanical watch is, once again, considered mostly a status symbol or a luxury item to some, millions are still being sold every year.

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Michael T