Antique jewelry watches

Time is one of the most surprising and incomprehensible concepts in the world. For many centuries, people have tried to find the best way to measure small intervals of time. First a simple device for measuring time was the sundial invented about 3.5 thousand years ago. Time in such watches could be learned only in the afternoon, so it was replaced by sand-glass. Hourglass appeared about a thousand years ago. History has some more lost time indicators, but only allowed the development of glass-blowing skills to create a relatively precise instrument. However, with hourglass only a small period of time could be measured. Mechanical clock appeared in Europe in the XV century. It is curious that instead of the numbers on the dial there were letters.

Nuremberg clock maker Peter Henlein was one of the first masters who produced the portable clock, in the second half of the fifteenth century. The first pocket watch was called the “Nuremberg eggs”, when in fact it didn’t have an egg shape. His ornamental timepieces were worn as pendants which in fact were the first timepieces to be worn on the body.

During the seventeenth century, watchmaking was intensively developing. Since its introduction, pocket watches immediately became a luxury item. Approach to their design became more sophisticated. Watch case was made in the form of animals and other objects, and the dial was decorated with enamel. The clock mechanism became more complex and watchmakers were searching for more innovative solutions. Case cover made ​​of rock crystal, gave the opportunity to see the work of mechanism.

With the beautiful French word ‘chatelaine’ at the end of the seventeenth century, was named a special, metal chain. One end of chatelaine was attached to the clothes and the other was adapted for connecting a variety of stationery items and key-chains. Chatelaine attained greater polarity in aristocratic society. Wearing mechanical pocket watches became extremely fashionable, jewelers and watchmakers turned watches into true masterpieces of jewelry.

By the end of the nineteenth century, due to the science and technology began mass production of the serial clock, making them more accessible to a wider audience. Initially, wristwatches were only for women, richly decorated with precious stones. No one self-respecting man of that time would put a watch on his hand. His watch was fastened to a chain, which looked out of his vest pockets – an integral part of the male costume of the time. However, not everyone was comfortable using only a pocket watch. Already in the 90’s of the nineteenth-century Russian army officers were seen with chronometers with additional ring, through which passed the rope that tied a clock to a hand. Thus, the first man to take advantage of wristwatches were military.

Antique jewelry watches

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