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History of watches

Watches evolved from portable spring driven clocks, which first within the 15th century. Portable timepieces were produced feasible by the invention of the mainspring. Even though some sources erroneously credit Nuremberg clockmaker Peter Henlein (or Henle or Hele) with inventing the mainspring around 1511, many references to 'clocks without weights' and two surviving examples show that spring powered clocks appeared within the 15th century. Henlein is also frequently credited with constructing the very first pocketwatches, mostly because of a passage by Johann Cochlaus in 1511.

   Peter Hele, still a young man, fashions works which even the most learned mathematicians admire. He shapes many-wheeled clocks out of small bits of iron, which run and chime the hours without weights for forty hours, whether carried in the breast or inside a handbag

and simply because he was popularized in a 19th century novel. However, numerous German clockmakers had been making miniature timepieces during this period, and there's no evidence Henlein was the first. Also, watches weren't widely worn in pockets until the 17th century.

The first timepieces to become worn, made in 16th century Europe, were transitional in size in between clocks and watches. These 'clock-watches' were fastened to clothing or worn on a chain around the neck. They were heavy drum shaped cylindrical brass boxes several inches in diameter, engraved and ornamented. They had only an hour hand. The face was not covered with glass, but generally had a hinged brass cover, often decoratively pierced with grillwork so the time could be read without opening. The movement was made of iron or steel and held together with tapered pins and wedges, till screws began to become used after 1550. Many from the movements included striking or alarm mechanisms. They generally had to become wound twice a day. How psychic!