Interesting History Of Pocket Watches

2008-10-08 Word Count: 476 Category: Business

Time is one of the main criteria's in our life. Time passes by and we change along with it. Everyday, with the passing time, new technologies are created for the welfare of the people. One such technology related to time is that of the discovery of watch. In the earlier times, people used to see the position of the sun and then decide the time. Later with the discovery of watch things became a lot simpler. Slowly these technologies were modified and also new technologies were created to make the working of the watch smoother and better.

Peter Heinlein, a locksmith in Nuremburg in Germany, with the help of a few other people made the first personal timepieces. They learned the method to make the spiral springs which could be easily wound and then uncoiled in order to move the hands of the clock. Later they noticed that these springs would also uncoil easily if they weren't wound too tightly. This lead to the invention of a new thing called the stackfreed. The stackfreed is a cam which has a special spring that compensated the main speed of the spring. The fusee in the watch, made up of a stiff hog bristle prevented this spring from getting wound too tightly and thus the spring would also unwind easily. Around about in the 13th century, the weight driven clocks were developed which used gears when the hour hand was already being used. The seconds hand in the watch was considered to be an indication or the symbol of wealth and luxury. Later with the improvements in the technology, the Pocket Watches were created in the 16th century. In 1675, the clockmakers also learnt that when a spring is attached to the balance, it provided a better accuracy in the time. Thus, with this technology people could now easily just look at their watch and could know the perfect time within a few minutes instead of an hour.

The first pocket watches created during those days were usually more of square design and were larger than the watches of today. Having the pocket watches during those days was a true sign of wealth, authority and status. With the introduction of the pocket watches, new technologies to make the watches different and better were being made. Thus new mechanisms in the pocket watches were being introduced to the people. Some of the very first pocket watches also had the alarm mechanism in them. The designs of these pocket watches were very simple in comparison to the present day pocket watches. Later about in the 17th century, the clockmakers started creating the pocket watches by carving on the metal and designing them differently. They also started imprinting their logo or name on the watch which is still been carried out by the traditional clockmakers across the world.

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