History Of Wrist Watches

You’d be bound to meet interesting wrist watches if you walked into the boardroom of a Fortune 500 company. Watch names like Vacheron Constanin, Frank Muller, Patek Phillipe, Jaeger-LeCoultre and the all time favorite, Rolex, wrist watches just exude an edifice of class and sophistication. In an age when newer technologies are integrated with time-telling functions (Personal Digital Assistants, Pagers and Cellular Phones with timepiece functions), wrist watches have become more of a piece of modern culture, rather than an object of function.

Wrist watches weren’t exactly called wrist watches then. They were known as Wristlets, and were considered more of a passing fad, rather than a serious timepiece. They were often reserved as a “for women” object, and were held with much disdain among men.

Watches, as they still are used for now, were primarily used to keep track of the time. Wrist watches, small as they were, weren’t exactly believed in, compared to pocket watches, which were seen to be more accurate. The rigors of human activity didn’t also make wrist watches popular, considering that the first of these Wristlets were delicate and expensive.

Ironically though, the views towards wrist watches changed during the 19th century. Soldiers found it quite a hassle to have to pull out their pocket watches for them to know the time, let alone proceed in their synchronized plans of attack. They found “wrist watches” more practical and convenient, as they fitted their pocket watches into a cup with leather straps and tied them around their wrists.

Records show that in the 1880s, the German Imperial Navy was equipped with similar looking time pieces. The Anglo-Boer War (South Africa 1899-1902) also became a birth point for wrist watches, as well as other technological advancements (the magazine-fed rifle, the automatic/machine gun and the smokeless gun power).

During the battle, tactical precision was achieved through the help of these makeshift wrist watches. By 1906 wristlets took a more definite step towards being wrist watches. The invention of wire loops soldered onto open-faced pocket watch cases, allowing straps to be easily attached, aided the adaptations for military wrist watch development, eventually leading to the development of wrist watches for men.
It wasn’t until the Second World War (1914-1919) when lessons learned from the Boer War were now applied. The demand for accurate and reliable wrist watches was now at its peak by this time.

Eventually, persons like Hans Wilsdorf, founder of Rolex SA, pushed and encouraged the acceptance of wrist watches in the general market.

These days, wrist watches don’t exactly just exist as a device of function. They’ve become more of a piece of modern culture.

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