Wrist Watches Store

On these pages you will find the history of and interesting information on your favorite wristwatches and watch companies.  We will be adding interesting tidbits on watches from around the world as we find them so be sure to check back often.  View specific wrist watch brand history from the menu on the left or begin here on the home page with an overview of watchmaking in general.  Thanks for your visit and enjoy!

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History of the Wristwatch:

Watches are portable time-keeping devices.  Many examples are as large as some present-day clocks, but today, watches are usually small and delicate in nature, yet durable enough to withstand the normal abuse of daily use.

Pocket watches were the standard of watch making until the twentieth century, though smaller models had been introduced in the late nineteenth century designed to be worn by ladies on a neck chain or as a pendant. Wristwatches were not introduced until World War I, and they were not generally accepted by gentlemen until after 1930.

A watch consists of a series of small wheels, pinions, and arbors held together by plates. Its movement is powered by springs and regulated by an escapement that must be of the balance-wheel style, rather than the pendulum, so that the watch will continue to run when moved or turned in various positions. Many watches also have jewels, which are small pieces of hard minerals inserted into the watch plates at the points of pivot of the arbors. Being harder, the jewel will wear less than a pivot hole drilled into the brass plate.

The watch was developed in Europe after 1500. It is doubtful that watches were constructed in America before 1773, perhaps not before 1809. Machine-made watches were first attempted in 1838 and successfully made after 1850, when many firms were formed specifically for the purpose. Some lasted only a short time; others achieved enormous success and produced millions of watches. After 1875, less-expensive watches were introduced some eventually selling for under a dollar. Between 1850 and the 1950s, when the industry began to decline in America, it is not unreasonable to believe that the total number of watches made was well over a billion!

Initial development of the watch is credited to Peter Henlein (1479-1542) of Nuremburg, Germany.

In the Cosmography of Pomponius Mela (published c. 1511), is the following description:

In these days, ingenious things are invented. As Peter Hele, still a very young man, performs works that astonish even the most learned scientists. For, from a little iron, he makes timepieces containing many small wheels that, no matter how they are turned about, both indicate time and beat forty hours, even though carried on the chest or in the pocket.

Wow, how far we’ve come since then. From other records it has been ascertained that “Peter Hele” was Peter Henlein, who became a master locksmith at Nuremburg in 1509. On his death in 1542, Henlein was called an urmacher or watchmaker.

Watch making later spread throughout Europe and England. Centers of fine watch making were established during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, especially in London, Paris, and Geneva. Initially, a watch was made by several craftsmen: rough castings were made by one artisan and the parts were finished and assembled by the watchmaker, who then engraved his name on the finished product. Cases were made by an artisan in the case-making trade. Since the parts were finished individually and by hand, they were never interchangeable, even as parts of wrist watches produced by one maker.

Colonial America had many artisans who considered themselves watchmakers. David Johnson of Boston was taxed as a watchmaker in 1687 and many men advertised as such thereafter.

It is almost certain, however, that they did not construct watches; rather, they sold and repaired watches imported from England and Europe. Watches are occasionally found bearing the name of an American “watchmaker,” but close examination indicates that the name had been engraved by the importer. (For example, the names of Effingham Embree of New York and Ephraim Clark of Philadelphia often appear. Customs documents exist, however, that prove both men brought in crates of watches from England during the 1790s.)

In 1838, the Pitkin brothers of East Hartford, Connecticut, attempted to produce watches by machine methods, thus paving the way for others. During the latter half of the nineteenth century, the American watch industry beca0me the greatest in the world. Economic trends of the present century, however, have forced the surrender of the honor to the Swiss wrist watch industry.

There is evidence that Thomas Harland (1735-1807) was the earliest watchmaker in America. Harland, an English-trained clockmaker, settled at Norwich, Connecticut, in 1773. He advertised on December 9, 1773, that he “makes in the neatest manner and on the most approved principles, horizontal, repeating, and plain gold watches I gold, silver, metal or covered cases.” He also noted “watch wheels and fuzees of all sorts and dimensions, cut and finished upon the shortest notice, neat as in London and at the same price.”

It is not known whether Harland actually made wrist watches or just engraved his name on imported examples, but he certainly had the ability to make watches. He perhaps made a few after his arrival and later found it mare economical to import them. In later advertisements, such as the one dated January 9, 1800, he no longer claimed to make watches, but had “for sale at his shop in Norwich, an assortment of Warranted Watches, vis. English sliver Watches, cap’d and jeweled; day of month and seconds, in silver and gilt cases; second-hand watches, various sorts; French gold and silver Watches, day of month, seconds, and plain.”

Further evidence that Thomas Harland, Sr., made watches is found in an obituary that appeared in the Connecticut Gazette of April, 1807: “Died at Norwich, Mr. Thomas Harland, age seventy-two, Goldsmith; he is said to have made the first wrist watch ever manufactured in America.” After 1800, Harland’s watch business was being conducted by his son, Thomas, Jr. On the younger Harland’s death in 1806, his estate papers listed 117 watches. All were noted as being of foreign manufacture, except for one that carried the name of Philip Sadler of Baltimore (though it was probably a foreign made watch too).

Luther Goddard (1762-1842) of Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, made ten purchases at the estate auction in 1807. He bought two French gold-case watches at twenty-eight dollars and ten dollars apiece. He also spent fifty cents for a pair of small rollers, a dollar for two dozen old seals, and ten dollars for a set of watch tools. Goddard began producing watches at Shrewsbury two years later; it is probable that he had received some matchmaking instructions form the Harlands.

Wrist Watches History Continued