History of Watches

History Of Watches

Watches evolved from portable spring driven clocks, which first appeared in 15th century Europe. Portable timepieces were made possible by the invention of the mainspring. Although some sources erroneously credit Nuremberg clockmaker Peter Henlein (or Henle or Hele) with inventing the mainspring around 1511, many references to 'clocks without weights' and two surviving examples show that spring powered clocks appeared in the 15th century. Henlein was a well-known craftsman of early "clock-watches" (taschenuhr), ornamental timepieces worn as pendants which were the first timepieces to be worn on the body. He is often credited as the inventor of the watch, mostly because of a passage by Johann Cochläus in 1511:

Peter Hele, still a young man, fashions works which even the most learned mathematicians admire. He shapes many-wheeled clocks out of small bits of iron, which run and chime the hours without weights for forty hours, whether carried at the breast or in a handbag

and because he was popularized in a 19th century novel. However, other German clockmakers were creating miniature timepieces during this period, and there is no evidence Henlein was the first. Watches weren't widely worn in pockets until the 17th century.

One account of the origin of the word "watch" is that it came from the Old English word woecce which meant "watchman", because it was used by town watchmen to keep track of their shifts. Another says that the term came from 17th century sailors, who used the new mechanisms to time the length of their shipboard watches (duty shifts).