Over the past few hundred years both watch and clock making have seen lots of major technological leaps forward. From the early days of the humble spring powered clock we have come a long way to the hi-tech accuracy of digital watches and the sublime elegance of ladies designer watches.Here are 10 of the most notable innovations.
The spring powered clock – The spring powered clock was invented in Nuremberg, Germany in the early 1500s.This early breakthrough paved the way for the size of clocks at the time to be reduced so much in size that they could become a watch.
The tourbillon – The tourbillon is responsible for watches being able to keep time, despite changes in time.This was introduced by Louis Briguet in the early to mid 1700s.
Mass production – this was the big leap forward that brought the price of watches down, making them affordable to the man on the street.
Automatic winding – After overcoming issues with inaccuracy and the risk of damage from water and dust rolex introduced the shockproof silent automatic winding watch.
The first electronic wristwatch – this was introduced in 1957 where a battery replaced the mainspring.This paved the way for a number of important stylistic innovations.
Quartz powered timekeeping – by 1969, movement sensor based timekeeping technology had become small enough to power a watch. Seiko manufactured the first, calling it the Astron.Amazingly it kept time to within an impressive 10 seconds per year.
The first digital display watch – this was produce in 1972 and was an expensive 18-carat gold watch.It wasnt long until much more affordable versions were manufactured.
The GPS wristwatch – the first GPS watch was manufactured by casio in 1999 to keep up with the growing technology industry.
Bluetooth – this is still a comparatively recent development, arriving as it did in 2006 with Seiko being the leader of the pack.Since that time other watchmakers have joined in with their own versions.
Gadgets – these days watches are used as cell phones, cameras and even media players.