Tradition Watches

The history of timekeeping is a story of the evolution of technology. Sundials were probably the first timekeeping device, and are still used to the modern day. But they are not very portable, and you’re basically out of luck if it’s cloudy, not to mention nighttime. Hourglasses, calibrated candles, and water clocks were all attempts to improve the situation, but it was not until the invention of the pendulum clock in the 17th century that there was a practical way of telling the time.

Spring-driven movements followed the introduction of the pendulum clock, making timekeeping truly portable. The big scientific problem of the 18th century was finding the longitude of a ship at sea, requiring a very accurate clock. A pendulum clock may be very accurate, but can’t work in a rolling, pitching ship. The solution of this was a spring-driven timepiece.

Ever more accurate designs were produced over about 300 years, leading to the standard lever escapement which is virtually unchanged up to today, and is the basis of almost all mechanical watches.

Electronic watches first made their appearance in the fifties with the famous and rather rare Hamilton Electrics and the Bulova Accutron. In the sixties, Seiko turned the whole watch industry on its head with the introduction of Quartz technology, producing very accurate watches at a very low price. It took more than thirty years for the luxury mechanical watch industry to fully recover.