Developed by Patek Phillips in 1868, the wrist watch has certainly had its round of developments over the years. From the cheapest plastic wrist watch to the most expensive designer watches – the progress technologically has been phenomenal.
After Phillips made the first watch, 1888, Louis Cartier made the first ladies wrist watch encrusted in diamonds. It also had a gold bracelet. The watch, a Santos-Dumont became fabulously popular and in 1911 was available to the mass market.
Early styles of wrist watches were commonly round shaped. With time, the shape and style of watches began to change, with Movado launching the ‘Polypan’ shaped watched. The watch introduced by Phillips was commonly known as ‘clock reference n. 1593′ in the market. 1913 saw more watches than ever being sold while the sizes and shapes of the watches being manufactured and sold differed.
The growing popularity of wrist watches led to more manufacturers jumping onto the bandwagon – leading to more changes in wrist watch design. Watches by Constantin, Patek Phillips and Cartier were the most sought after at the time.
1912 saw Movado producing the first army wrist watch, complete with a strong, protective grid over the glass to make it more durable, Eterna unveiled the first alarm watch in 1914.
Along came Rolex in 1920 leaving all the other watch companies in its dust. Revolutionizing the wrist watch industry, Role introduced ‘Rolex Prince’ which contained a ‘dual time’ feature, which was then followed by ‘Rolex Oyster’, the company’s first water resistant wrist watch.
Other milestones in the industry include:
‘Reverse’ by Jaegar Le Coultre; could be turned a 180 degrees within its case
1923 – Invention of the first automatic wrist watch by John Hardwood
1953 – Manufacture of the first battery powered watch by Lips.
1957 – Production of first electric watch by Hamilton
