Earliest Type of Watch

For our current time period, a watch may seem like another ordinary device. But it went through a long history of development, too. Want to know how the first watches looked like? Read!

Evolving from portable spring-driven clocks, the watch was said to be produced by German clockmakers even before the 17^th Century – the time period when pocket watches were widely worn.

Actually, the first watches were attached to chains and were worn either in pockets or around the neck. They were also transitional in size between clocks and watches bearing heavy drum-shaped cylindrical brass boxes several inches in diameter, engraved and ornamented. They had only an hour hand and the face was not covered with glass, but usually had a hinged brass cover, often decoratively pierced with grillwork so the time could be read without opening. They usually had to be wound twice a day.

Earliest dated watch

Later, the shape evolved into a rounded form and was then called Nuremberg eggs. Afterwards, a trend for unusually shaped watches and clock-watches shaped like books, animals, fruit, stars, flowers, insects, crosses, and skulls surfaced.

The accuracy of the watches’ verge and foliot movements was so poor, with errors of perhaps several hours per day, that they were practically useless and were only used for aesthetical purposes. They were made as jewelry and novelties for the nobility, valued for their fine ornamentation, unusual shape, or intriguing mechanism, and accurate timekeeping was of very minor importance

If you’re interested to learn the rest of the watch’s history, check the wiki.