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A watch is a small portable clock that displays the current time and sometimes the current day, date, month and year. In modern times
they are usually worn on the wrist, although before the 20th century most were pocket
watches, which had covers and were carried separately, often in a pocket, and hooked to a watch chain.
Current watches are often digital watches, powered by a battery that causes a small crystal, usually quartz, to vibrate. The watch keeps time by "counting" these vibrations.
In earlier times mechanical timepieces were used, powered by a spring wound regularly by the user. The invention of kinetic watches allowed for a "perpetual" winding
without special action from the wearer: it works by an irregular weight that rotates to the movement of the wearer's body,
automatically winding the watch.
Watches may be collectible; they are often made of precious metals, and
can be considered an article of jewellery.
types of watch
Pocket Clock
The first necessity for partability in time keeping was navigation and
mapping in the 15th century.
The latitude could be measured by looking at the stars, but the only way a ship
could measure its longitude was by comparing timezones; by comparing the midday
time of were they were to the one it should be in Europe, a sailor could know how far he was from home. For that reason, most
maps in that time are distorted horizontally although they were vertically precise.
As first clocks measured time with pendulums, which were useless in boats. The
invention of a spring mechanism was crucial for the first portable clocks. The miniaturisation technologies permitted it from
becoming a huge weight inside a ship to a small piece of jewellery inside a pocket.
Wrist Watch
The wrist watch was invented by Philipe Patek at the end of the 19th century. It was
however considered a women's acessory. It was not until the beginning of the 20th century that the Brazilian inventor Santos
Dumont, who had difficulty checking the time while in his first aircraft (Dumont was working on the invention of the
aeroplane), asked his friend Louis
Cartier for a watch he could use more easily. Cartier gave him a leather-band wrist watch from which Dumont never separated.
Being a popular figure in Paris Cartier was soon able to sell these watches to other
men.
Digital Watch
Cheaper electronics permitted the popularisation of the digital watch in the second half of the 20th century. They were seen
as the great new thing. Douglas Adams in the introduction of his novel
the Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy would say that 'humans were so primitive that
they still thought digital watches were a nice idea'.
Swatch
In the end of the 20th century, the Swiss watch makers were seeing their sales go down as analog clocks were considered
obsolete. They joined forces with designer from many countries to reinvent the Swiss watch.
The result was that they could considerably reduce the pieces and production time of a analog watch. In fact it was so cheap
that if a watch broke it would be cheaper to throw it away and buy a new one. They founded the Swiss Watch company (Swatch) and
called graphic designers to redesign a new annual collection.
This is often used as a case study in design schools to demonstrate the commercial potential of industrial and graphic
design.
List of some Prominent makers of watches
The science of timekeeping, clocks, and watches is called horology.
In naval parlance, the day is divided into four-hour watches, or
on-duty periods. See ship's bells.
The term in general use can mean any period of duty or responsibility.
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