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History of Wristwatches

First mechanical watches
Neither the idea of ​​designing a portable time measuring instrument, the precursor of the wristwatch, nor even the phenomenon is new: in ancient Rome, there were already small portable sundials.

In Germany, it was mainly the monasteries that were interested in perfectly functioning clocks. The Benedictine Hildemar even declared that “no prayer can be reasonable if it is not precisely regulated. ". The candle clock was invented in England in the tenth century: a candle indicated the time by being consumed.

The first mechanical clock was built around the 10th century and was driven by stone weights. But it was not until the 12th century that the builders of astronomical instruments made the first usable cog clocks. It was around this time that the word "watchmaker" appeared, denoting the profession.

Watchmaking technique also developed in Asia. The Chi hois had since the Middle Ages water clocks which functioned satisfactorily. In the 6th century, they were already supplying these instruments to Japan.

The construction of clocks already involves knowing and understanding certain notions about time. What is a die? What is a minute? However, these are Western temporal motions. In Asia, another system was in force for a long time. Indeed, night and day were each divided into six sections. In summer, the days were longer, and consequently the segments of the day too; conversely, in winter they were shorter. The horrors required to indicate this phenomenon were complex works of art.

Pendulum and escapement
In Europe, the much simpler 24-hour day was in shape and with it the 12-hour clock was also uncomplicated. Initially, it was enough to animate a wheel which turned without stopping twice a day around its axis to tell the time. Putting the wheel in motion was not difficult: it was enough to wind a weight attached to a cord wrapped around the axis of the wheel. The problem was to brake the system so that it did not unroll suddenly.

In the thirteenth century, monumental mechanical clocks made their appearance in Europe, then in the fourteenth century astronomical clocks for large churches. Dante also described one of his hor Oges around 1320 in the Divine Comedy. It was therefore more and more common practice to equip church steeples with clocks, most of them bearing a chime, not only to indicate the time of the village but above all to indicate with precision the time of religious services.

These clocks, animated by weights, worked amazingly precisely. Unfortunately, we do not know exactly how the first watchmakers succeeded in braking their clocks with friction escapements so that they had a stable operation (which would later be achieved by the balance wheel and modern escapements).

The pendulum was invented in the 16th century by Galileo Galileo Galilei, but it was perfected by the astronomer Christian Huygens who filed a patent application. Since then, he has been wrongly credited with the invention of the pendulum. The idea is brilliant: the pendulum oscillates and it is only with each tick or tock that the gear of the clock can turn one more notch.