Vintage Pocket Watch

Vintage Pocket Watch

 Mechanisms for keeping time were developed hundreds of years ago, however it was in the 1500′s before the first mobile time keeping device came to be.

The clock’s mechanism at that time was quite large and too heavy to be considered for a portable clock. The majority of clocks were very large and were used in cathedrals or buidings where space was not a factor. Large stone or metal blocks were used as weights and counterbalances to provide power for these clocks.

The mobile clock would have been a farfetched idea during this period of time The invention of the mobile timepiece brought a large number of advances to modern civilization.

It would over time become useful to astronomers and others needing to calculate time and location.

One of the first inventors on record to make a watch was Peter Henlien, a german locksmith. Steel was the primary metal used to create the first watches. Locksmiths and blacksmiths became watch buiders first as they had the skills to work with metal in the making of tools. Soon the locksmith took over the trade as gold, silver and brass came to replace steel. The locksmith was more adept in working with the smaller parts used in the portable clock.

Up to this time a watch was about 5 inches wide and near 3 inches thick, still quite large. The discovery by the makers of clocks of spring technology brought about the first mobile time piece. Spiral springs would be wound and uncoiled to advance the hour hand of the watch. While the technology was an improvement, it was not truly accurate as springs do not uncoil at an even speed.

Although inaccurate these timepieces were leaps and bounds ahead of telling time by the movement of the sun. A solution was found for accuracy when watch buiders observed that springs uncoiled more constantly when not wound to tight. The invention of the stackfreed, a cam with a spiral sring added, and the fusee, a stop made of hog bristle would prevent  the spring  being over wound. Around 1675 the watch makers found that a spiral spring connected to the balance provided a notable increase in accuracy. These improvements provided a watch that was accurate to within minutes.

The watch now included a minute hand. During this time, a watch required winding twice in a day.

Adding a fourth wheel to the movement dropped the winding proccess to once a day. It was nearly another century before the second hand came about.

Eventualy calenders and other gadgets were added and the vintage pocket watch as we know it came to be.

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