Wrist watch

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Analog wrist watch
Classic wrist watch

A wristwatch is a time measuring device ( watch ) belonging to small watches , which is worn around the wrist or forearm with the help of a bracelet ( watch band ), a bracelet, a clasp or a chain. The wristwatch, technically realized in the 19th century, established itself in the 20th century. In the past, a distinction was made (more often than today) between the ladies' wristwatch and the men's wristwatch .

history

Advertisement for a cyclist watch from 1893

Forerunner of the wristwatch

There is evidence that portable clocks were built as early as the 15th century, initially in the form of pocket watches , among others by Peter Henlein . They were made possible by the invention of the mainspring , which allowed the drive and balance wheel (still with a rotating pendulum) to replace the hanging pendulum as a clock- setting element; this allowed the watches to shrink to a manageable size. Christiaan Huygens received a French patent for the use of a balance spring with a balance, which he had developed based on a proposal by Jean de Hautefeuille . This combination of balance wheel and hairspring became the central regulating organ of every mechanical wristwatch. Since there were already small clocks on the finger ring and in the epee pommel in the first half of the 17th century , it was assumed that wristwatches could also have existed. The French philosopher and mathematician Blaise Pascal is also said to have worn his pocket watch on his wrist. In an Almanach du Dauphin from 1772, a Parisian watchmaker was listed in Rue de Buci who is said to have offered ring and wristwatches. For the time around 1790, for example, as a clock, "qui est fixée sur un bracelet" , other clocks integrated into bracelets were named in an invoice book of the Geneva company Jaquet-Droz & Leschot .

Development of the wristwatch in the 19th century

The Parisian court jeweler Étienne Nitot made two bracelets adorned with pearls in 1806, one of which is a mechanical calendar, the other has a small clock, making it a real wristwatch (the bracelets were a wedding gift from Empress Joséphine de Beauharnais to her daughter-in-law Amalie Auguste ) . Abraham Louis Breguet built his first wristwatch for Caroline Murat in 1810. In the early wristwatches (initially also known as “bracelets with watches”, French bracelet-montre instead of montre-bracelet ), the 12 is often still in the direction of the fingers, like this that the more easily readable variant with a dial axis from 6 to 12 running parallel to the bracelet in the direction of the arm, which can be proven from around 1850, prevailed. However, the pocket watch dominated until the 20th century. Wristwatches were mostly worn by women.

Further miniaturization of the clockworks made the clocks shrink to the size of a bracelet, and in 1880, for example, the wristwatch, initially as a jewelery wristwatch (around 1860 still provided with a key winding of the cylinder mechanism), established itself as a new type of clock. Around 1890 it became fashionable for some time to wear the wristwatch-sized ladies' pocket watches on chains or straps as jewelry watches on the wrist. This fashion was initially considered "effeminate" - men initially continued to use pocket watches on the watch chain. However, this turned out to be unwieldy for some uses, for example with childcare mothers and educators, or with soldiers who rely on consistent timing and want to keep their hands free for other activities. Girard-Perregaux is said to have produced a series of wristwatches for the German navy from around 1880, along with other Swiss companies, according to Jaquet and Chapuis .

The wristwatch manufacturers received impulses for their further development from the hand setting designed by Adrien Philippe from the winding crown (in 1842 he had invented the first remontoir watch that had a crown winding instead of a winding key).

Further development of the mechanical wristwatch in the 20th century

At the beginning of the 20th century, women no longer used watches only as jewelry watches, but increasingly for work. The number of female employees had risen from 93,000 to 452,000 between 1882 and 1907, and wristwatches became common work equipment, especially for working women in the commercial sector (as office workers), postal and school services and as employees in the medical sector. Sports enthusiasts and cyclists moving over cobblestones, if they could afford it financially, increasingly used the wristwatch.

The Boer War (1899–1902), in which British army members used watches from the Omega company, for example , and during the First World War (1914–1918), for wristwatches with sturdy cases with glass protection , offered the first military uses as part of field equipment during the war (for example as a protective grille on a model by Cyma , Le Chaux-de-Fonds, from 1915 or as a savonnette , i.e. a hinged lid, on a wristwatch that was also available in 1915) and luminous numbers for the soldiers were used The wristwatch was then also implemented in the civilian sector worldwide. Cartier developed a wristwatch called "Tank" for the US Army . After the officers discovered in World War I that their pocket watches were proving impractical in winter and generally in combat conditions, the wristwatch quickly gained acceptance in the military and eventually in civil society and had become the standard by the end of the war. Even pilots who were reliant on fast and precise timekeeping in their aircraft, which were then sparsely equipped with on-board instruments, soon began to use wristwatches. The Brazilian aviation pioneer Alberto Santos Dumont had his friend, Parisian watchmaker Louis Cartier, build a watch for aviators in 1904 that was worn on a bracelet. In cooperation with Charles Lindbergh , an hour angle wristwatch developed by Longines was available for aviators from 1932 .

As characteristic of the transition from pocket watch to wristwatch, Kahlert names small watches that - like models from 1910 ( Avia , La Chaux-de-Fonds ) and 1912 ( Péry Watch ) - are used both as pocket watches and as part of the wristwatch can. Customers also had their pocket watches converted into wristwatches by the watchmaker.

In 1913 there were already wristwatches with a movement that ran for several days, such as the converted pocket watch model “Hebdomas” with an eight-day power reserve. At that time, various Swiss watch manufacturers such as Omega advertised in large format in German trade magazines, among others.

The fact that wristwatches can also be chronometers was shown by a certificate issued in 1914 by the observatory in Kew, England, for a wristwatch made by Rolex.

However, according to Kahlert, the pocket watch only lost its importance after 1930 when, after an "experimental phase" that began around 1910, the wristwatch had become an independent, high-performance watch type and Swiss manufacturers sold more wristwatches than pocket watches. However, this trend reversal was already apparent around 1925 - before Mercedes Gleitze swam almost completely through the English Channel with a waterproof Rolex Oyster (1926) on his arm in October 1927 . In Germany, the watch put some time delayed by what is about pointing out that the guidelines of the apprentice watchmaker by Hermann Sievert in the 13th, by seen, edition of 1931 it was not even mentioned. In 1934 Helmut Junghans , whose (largest German) watch factory Junghans launched a self-developed lever movement for men's wristwatches in 1930, had 1,500 pocket watches and 2,000 wristwatches manufactured daily. The cylinder escapement, which was used before the Swiss lever escapement , which is common on wristwatches , was also used in 1937 and occasionally later. The pin-lever escapement developed from 1798 on was mainly used for cheap watches until the last third of the 20th century.

From around 1930 onwards, the first effective shock protection devices for wristwatches appeared, such as those that were particularly popular for sports watches. In the Incabloc system, for example, balance stones are mounted in a conical guide surface. Since 1938 the system could be installed in all calibres. From around 1955, shock protection only became established for particularly high-quality wristwatches. From around 1965 the Certina DS wristwatch promised “double security” , with a soft rubber ring between the case and the movement.

The first specialist wristwatch book published in Germany was written by Bruno Hillmann in 1925 . In 1937 the widespread textbook written by Hans Jendritzki appeared .

Since the 1930s, has been in the construction of prior to the transient performance (from 100 oersteds protected wristwatches worked) influencing magnetic fields, which has been experimenting for a steely with the replacement components on one hand with shielding enclosures. In 1956 the “Ingenieur” model from IWC (Schaffhausen) , which shields against magnetic fields of up to 1000 Oersted, was on the market.

While older wristwatches were still equipped with a bimetallic compensation balance, which had received improved compensation with the use of the steel alloy developed by Charles Édouard Guillaume , wristwatches with a self-compensating hairspring and single-metal balance have become common since the 1930s. Since 1960, ring-shaped large unrest without screws have increasingly been used. The Gyromax balance used by Patek Philippe around 1955 is considered to be the forerunner .

The special alloy Nivarox developed by the Swiss engineer and entrepreneur Reinhard Straumann in 1933 was another step towards improving the accuracy of wristwatches . The balance springs made from it were almost anti-magnetic, rustproof and hardly sensitive to heat. The characteristics of a modern mechanical wristwatch were described with the Nivarox balance spring and the Glucydur balance made of hardened beryllium bronze, introduced after 1935 . Straumann had developed the Nivaflex alloy by 1948 . The material, which is slightly modified compared to Nivarox, was suitable for drive and mainspring springs. With the same properties, there was also the fact that the feathers were unbreakable. Thus, the spring had a longer life than the watch as a whole.

The first automatic watch (as a wristwatch with a pendulum oscillating weight that draws its energy for tensioning the spring from the arm movements of the wearer) was made by John Harwood in 1923 . Harwood apparently did not know that Abraham-Louis Perrelet had designed a pocket watch with rotor and changer (i.e. double-winding) as early as 1770, and Hubert Sarton a short time later . Series production of the first functioning automatic wristwatches based on the Harwood system began in 1929. Rolex later built an automatic watch with a single-sided winding rotor and patented it.

Research into an oil suitable for wristwatches was essentially complete by 1950. Before these new oil syntheses, the oxidation and resinification of the watch oils, which were developed in the second half of the 19th century and consisted of nipple oil and liquid paraffins, were particularly problematic.

Electromechanical and electronic watches

New technologies used the tuning fork watch and shortly afterwards the quartz watch . Various approaches had been taken to build more accurate clocks with the help of electrical or electronic components, for example the tuning fork clock, in which the frequency given by an electrically driven tuning fork is used as a clock generator. With the quartz clock, a quartz crystal, which vibrates under current flow, provides the clock. Other possibilities existed in the use of an electrodynamically driven balance wheel. More recent developments were quartz watches that are not powered by a battery that needs to be changed frequently, but by a battery (hybrid watch) that can be recharged by a rotor or with solar energy (solar watch).

Quartz watches can have a digital display (initially with LEDs , later with more energy-saving liquid crystals ) or a display with pointers (analog clock), although hybrid forms are increasingly on the market today. After a boom in the 1980s, the numeric display was increasingly replaced by the dial display.

The first electronic wristwatch with a miniature quartz as the clocking element was presented by the Center Electronique Horloger (CEH) in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, in 1967 and certified as a chronometer in the Neuchâtel observatory in August 1967 (IEEE milestone). This watch had a classic mechanical hand display. In the years that followed, the quartz crisis , which lasted until around 1985, arose when mechanical watches were replaced by quartz watches .

In 1970 Peter Petroff developed the prototype of the first digital wristwatch with an LED display. It was further developed by the companies Hamilton Watch Company and Electro-Data and known commercially as the pulsar because the digital display could only be read for a few seconds at the push of a button due to the high power consumption.

The first digital wristwatches with a permanent liquid crystal display (LCD) came onto the market between 1973 and 1975. The companies Gruen and Timex in the USA, Nepro and Mondaine in Switzerland and Seiko and Casio with the Casiotron 1974 watch in Japan were the pioneers. The liquid crystal displays that made this possible for the first time were developed by Suwa Seikosha in Japan and Brown, Boveri & Cie. (BBC) in Switzerland for the watch manufacturers Nepro, Mondaine, Casio and Ilixco in the USA.

Today wristwatches with a dial or numeric display or a combination of both forms of representation are common. Different types have developed which, in addition to the classic time display, offer various additional functions - not only for everyday use, but also for jewelry and prestige. Think of aviator chronographs, diving watches, sports watches, military watches and so-called action watches of all kinds. In addition, watches of a certain provenance attract the interest of customers, such as watches from the areas of the former Soviet Union or Eastern Bloc countries .

In 1990, Junghans introduced the MEGA 1, the first radio-controlled wristwatch ( radio- controlled watch ), which put an end to the race for the most accurate watch.

At the beginning of the 21st century, an increase in the production of digital watches can be seen again, which is due to additional functions with measurement data and innovative, fashionable LC displays.

The quartz watch makes up the bulk of the world watch market in terms of sales.

Smartphone manufacturers offer so-called smartwatches , which combine the classic functions of a wristwatch with the communication options of a smartphone (phone call, e-mail, SMS, etc.) in one device. They are so successful in this that their sales figures exceed those of all known watch manufacturers in Switzerland combined.

Components

mechanism

Every mechanical wristwatch has a balance wheel as an oscillating body. This oscillates with a beat rate specified by the spiral spring , with classic watches 18,000 amplitudes per hour (corresponds to 2.5 Hz ), with modern watches mostly 21,600 (3 Hz) or 28,800 (4 Hz) vibrations per hour. Some high-speed vibrators even reach 36,000 vibrations per hour (5 Hz), e.g. B. the Longines Ultra-Chron , the Gyromatic Chronometer HF from Girard-Perregaux and el Primero from Zenith . The balance switches the armature with each pass . This switching enables the gear wheel to move one tooth further. The armature and the gear wheel prevent the tension spring from freely delivering force via the gear train (see also isochronism ).

The gear train (also known as a vibration counter) is a translation into high speed (seen from the spring). The escapement's switching passages are therefore divided down until the minute wheel makes 1 ⁄ 60 turn per minute.

The pointer mechanism takes the power from the minute wheel shaft and divides the revolutions of the minute wheel via a change gear with an alternating drive on the hour tube, which makes 1 ⁄ 12 revolutions per hour due to the reduction in speed .

The hour hand is attached to the hour tube, the minute hand on the so-called quarter tube, which is connected to the minute wheel shaft or the minute tube via a slip clutch (which enables the pointer to be positioned). A stop second is a device that, after pulling the crown, stops the movement including the second hand so that the time can be set to the second before the movement starts moving again after the crown is pushed in.

The crown is used to adjust the hands and the date as well as to wind the movement.

Watch strap

Watch straps can basically be distinguished based on the following properties:

  • Material: metal ( stainless steel , titanium , gold alloys ), leather ( alligator , crocodile , horse , shark , rays or ostrich ), plastic , rubber , fabric , ceramics etc.
  • Design: link belt, woven belt, solid material or metallic warp knitted fabric ( Milanese or Milanese)
  • Clasp: pin or folding clasp (single or double (butterfly clasp), as a bow or push button) or no clasp
  • Attachment of the bracelet to the watch: Attachment to the lugs of the watch case , a pin buckle is mounted at 12 o'clock; Integration into the watch case or threading through spring bars on the lugs. The so-called Leonardo approach is a flexible system for the seamless connection of bracelet and watch.
  • Characteristics: two-part (upper and lower part) and one-part: e.g. B. with the NATO strap band , underlay watch band with a washer part under the case and wide bracelets into which the watch case is integrated
  • Bracelet length: normal length for wearing around the bare wrist or long length for wearing over clothing (e.g. diving suit, flight suit)
  • Processing techniques : In the rembordé process or by rembording , the upper leather is placed around the edges of the lining leather and glued to it seamlessly and deep into the fibers under a defined combination of heat and pressure. With the Turned Edge Technology , the upper leather is folded over the inlay. The lining leather is then attached to the underside of the inlay and sewn to the upper leather. In addition, the coupé franc, the upper and the lining leather are connected to one another in the course of a cut- edged finish, the edges are left open. The cut edges are sealed with a flexible varnish . When it comes to leather watch straps, a distinction is made between upper leather and lining leather. The upper leather is the visible side of the bracelet. Depending on the animal species, different skin sections are processed. The lining leather is the inside of the bracelet. The quality of the lining leather is decisive for the lifespan of the belt, as it is constantly exposed to moisture, abrasion, perfumes, creams and perspiration when worn on the skin. For people with skin allergies, bracelet manufacturers offer leather bracelets with an anti-allergic coating on the leather lining.

Bracelets for watches can be equipped with a wide variety of functions. On an IDentification bracelet z. B. personal data, access authorizations or monetary values ​​are saved. A high level of resistance is required, especially for sport. In addition to plastic straps , bracelets made from processed natural rubber , which are highly elastic and at the same time extremely stable, waterproof and skin-friendly, have established themselves here . There are now leather bracelets that are extremely waterproof. With the invention of Rembordier technology, it is also possible to manufacture luxurious leather bracelets with very high water resistance, such as an alligator bracelet that is water-resistant up to 10 bar.

  • Watch straps with pin buckle or folding clasp (single or double)

  • Leonardo approach

  • Rubber bracelet

Different types

Chronometer

Wristwatches with movements that have proven a specified rate accuracy in a test at an official test center may be referred to as chronometers (Greek for "timekeeper"). An example of a wrist chronometer from the 1950/1960 development period is the Junghans chronometer model with the J 85 movement .

Mission watches

Military watches are specially designed for military or other (eg. As police divers and fire brigade) task forces designed wristwatches. Special features of this type of timepiece are, depending on the type of use, robustness against vibrations and ambient temperatures, water resistance, readability at night and display of the elapsed time of use. The Omega Speedmaster Professional from 1965 , which was used in space, achieved fame .

The features mentioned and other functions such as tachymeter or a world time display (world time display with city names, for example in a rotating bezel ) were also used in utility watches.

Mechanics renaissance

With the triumphant advance of microelectronics, it was possible in a short time to manufacture comparatively accurate watches with quartz movements very cheaply, which significantly changed the traditional watch industry. There was a concentration of clockwork manufacturers, which resulted in a monopoly-like position of the Swiss ETA SA . This belongs to the Swatch Group , as does the movement manufacturers Frédéric Piguet SA and Nouvelle Lémania SA , both of which are largely responsible for the extensive luxury watch division of the Swatch Group ( Glashütte Uhrenbetrieb , Union Glashütte / SA , Breguet SA , Blancpain , Rado , Tissot , Omega , Longines and Hamilton ) work.

After the end of the quartz crisis in the 1980s, the high-quality price segment of the elaborately crafted mechanical watch became popular again as a luxury item. The microelectronics and the associated improvements in precision mechanical manufacturing methods allow new features that were not possible with traditional methods. The simple mechanical wristwatch previously widely used, on the other hand, was almost completely replaced by the very precise and low-maintenance quartz watch.

Against this trend, the Swatch Group developed a new, purely mechanical automatic watch and launched it in 2014, which only uses 51 parts and is manufactured fully automatically. The sistem51 wristwatch can be offered inexpensively thanks to the minimal number of parts and efficient production, although it offers high quality (17 jewel stores, 90 h power reserve without movement, hermetically sealed, several years of operation without maintenance).

The large number of brands of mechanical wristwatches that exist today should not hide the fact that a few movements, so-called " calibres ", are built into many watches . B. the ETA SA . Only a few luxury watch manufacturers, so-called watch manufacturers , produce almost all the essential parts of their watches themselves. The division of labor in the manufacture of the shell , the so-called "ébauche", the installation in the housing by "établisseurs" and the sale under different own brand names has a long tradition.

The luxury watch manufacturers can essentially be divided into six groups of owners:

  1. the Swatch Group , which includes Montres Breguet , Blancpain and Omega SA ,
  2. the French LVMH with the brands TAG Heuer , Zenith and Dior Watches ,
  3. the also French PPR ,
  4. the Swiss Richemont (formerly Vendôme Luxury Group ). Richemont last took over the LMH Holding from Vodafone-Mannesmann in 2000 for 3.0 billion Swiss francs , which owned such well-known watch brands as IWC , A. Lange & Söhne and Jaeger-LeCoultre . Richemont also owns the watch brands Cartier , Piaget , Baume & Mercier , Panerai and Vacheron Constantin ,
  5. the Swiss company Franck Muller Watchland and
  6. the French group Kering among others with the brands Girard-Perregaux and Ulysse Nardin .

In addition to Patek Philippe , Audemars Piguet , Breitling , Chopard , Nomos Glashütte and Rolex , as well as some smaller independent watchmaking companies, some of which are organized in the Académie Horlogère des Créateurs Indépendants , should be mentioned as independent manufacturers in the international context .

In addition to these luxury brands, a number of smaller independent watch brands have established themselves in Germany, but they are largely dependent on the raw works of ETA SA or remnants from before the quartz crisis and build them into their cases, sometimes with changes. These include the manufacturers MeisterSinger , Junghans , Sinn , Stowa , Askania , Mühle Glashütte and Chronoswiss .

In order to avoid the originally almost complete dependence on ETA SA , some smaller manufacturers developed their own in-house calibers, such as B. Damasko and Nomos Glashütte or switch to smaller raw material manufacturers such as Soprod SA .

Complications

The simple wristwatch has two or three hands (with or without a seconds display, which has been more common since around 1930). There are also other so-called complications , i.e. technical finesse, such as:

  • Chronograph (stopwatch function), widely used in high quality mechanical men's watches
  • Power reserve indicator
  • Automatic elevator ( automatic )
  • Date display (1 to 31), since around 1915 via hands, since around 1925 also and especially after 1935 as a digital time display
  • Perpetual calendar , switches (until February 28, 2100) the correct date taking into account leap years and month length (28, 29, 30 or 31 days). Starting in 1941, Patek Philippe was the first to produce wristwatches with a "perpetual calendar" in series.
  • Large date display
  • Minute repeater , a percussion mechanism that acoustically indicates the time every minute (first presented by several manufacturers in 1914 as part of the Swiss National Exhibition)
  • Moon phase
  • Rattrapante : split-seconds chronograph that can display split times
  • 7-day movement: a spring that offers a 7-day power reserve instead of 42 to 48 hours
  • Retrograde ads
  • Second disc: A mostly transparent and printed thin disc instead of the second hand. The decisive factor here is that its weight does not have too great an influence on the amplitude of the movement and that it does not collide with the cover glass or the minute hand
  • Spielwerk
  • Jumping date change
  • stopwatch
  • Tourbillon or carousel , a rotating bearing of the escapement to increase the accuracy
  • Full calendar with month, some with four-digit year
  • Alarm clock
  • weekday
  • Equation of time
  • Second time zone (e.g. by means of an independently adjustable or second hour hand)

The Grande Complication ( Large complication ) is considered the highest art of watchmaking as several additional functions such as perpetual calendar with moon phase, minute repeater and chronograph mechanism, or tourbillon are combined in a wristwatch.

In addition to the technical refinement through numerous additional functions, the final mechanical post-processing and surface refinement (also finishing, French: finishing ) is a quality feature of watch movements.

Standard revision

Wristwatches with a mechanical movement should be serviced approximately every four to five years , i.e. undergo at least one standard overhaul (with cleaning, assembly, oiling and adjustment ). For maintenance, the crown and case of the watch are completely dismantled, the dial and the movement are also removed. All parts of the watch are then carefully checked by a specialist or, if necessary, a licensee . The more complications a wristwatch contains, the more complex the revision is usually. The movement (as well as the dial) is also completely dismantled by a specialist and examined for wear. After checking all the individual parts, the watch case including the metal bracelet (if present) is ultrasonically cleaned and then reassembled. If necessary, individual parts are replaced and, if necessary, the movement is oiled. At the time , Breguet had drawn Napoleon's attention to the importance of the oil used (“Give me the perfect watch oil, Sire, and I'll build you the perfect watch”). A function check and, if necessary, fine adjustment complete the maintenance of the mechanical watch. How much time the maintenance process takes depends on the complexity, structure and processing of the watch.

Depending on the watch model, additional checks may be necessary, for example a water resistance check on diving watches .

economy

Wristwatches are produced in large quantities. While around 100 million (mechanical) clocks were still being produced in 1965, in 1995 there were already over a billion clocks worldwide, mainly quartz clocks ( large and small clocks ). The proportion of wristwatches in this was around 500 to 700 million per year around 1996.

According to the investigation by the Swiss Competition Commission (Weko) , which was concluded on November 19, 2004, the subsidiary ETA SA of the Swatch Group has a dominant position in mechanical raw works manufactured in Switzerland up to a price of CHF 300 per piece . They also dominate the world market for higher-priced products.

In terms of sales, the watch division of the US computer manufacturer Apple , which exclusively produces smartwatches , is the largest watch manufacturer in the world ahead of the Swiss Rolex group (as of 2018).

literature

  • The ladies' wristwatch as a timepiece. In: Deutsche Uhrmacher-Zeitung. 1927, p. 176 f.
  • Fritz Leuthold: Of wristwatches and their shapes. In: The watchmaker week. 1928, pp. 150-153 (continued).
  • Howard Maryatt: Watches. without location 1938.
  • S. Guye: La Montre bracelet. In: A. Chapuis (Ed.): L'Horlogerie. Une Tradition Helvétique. Neuchâtel 1948, pp. 161-185.
  • Eugene Jaquet, Alfred Chapuis: Technique And History Of The Swiss Watch From Its Beginning To The Present Day. Boston Book And Art Shop, Boston, USA, printed in Switzerland 1953.
  • Fritz Weger: wristwatch and watch strap. In: The clock. Issue 16, 1963, pp. 14-23.
  • Helmut Kahlert : The early years of the wristwatch. In: Old clocks. No. 1, 1981, pp. 27-35.
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  • Anton Kreuzer The wristwatch. Specialties, extravagances and technical profiles. Klagenfurt 1983.
  • Anton Kreuzer: Fascinating world of old wristwatches. Klagenfurt 1985.
  • Jürgen Abeler : Time signs. The portable watch from Henlein to this day. Harenberg Kommunikation, Dortmund 1983, ISBN 3-88379-362-0 .
  • Cedric Jagger: Some early wrist watches. In: Clocks. No. 4, 1985, pp. 21-33.
  • Ribotini Leonardi: The Wrist Watch. 1986.
  • Giampiero Negretti, Franco Nencini: The most beautiful wristwatches. Munich 1986.
  • J. Barracca, G. Negretti, F. Nencini: Wristwatches - The most beautiful collector's items. Munich 1988.
  • E. Blauer: American Wristwatches: Five decades of style and design. Westchester 1988.
  • Gisbert L. Brunner : The Golden Age of the Wristwatches. In: Éclat international. Issue 17, (Paris) 1988, pp. 106-109.
    • German: Golden times for timepieces on the wrist. In: clocks. No. 5, 1989, pp. 45-54.
  • E. Faber, St. Unger, E. Blauer: American wristwatches. Munich 1989.
  • Helmut Kahlert: From pocket watch to wristwatch. A review. In: Uhren Magazin. No. 5, 1990, pp. 68-78.
  • George Gordon: Twentieth Century Wristwatches. London 1990.
  • Gisbert L. Brunnen, Christian Pfeiffer-Belli: Swiss wristwatches. Munich 1990, ISBN 3-7667-0982-8 .
  • Michael Balfour: The classic wristwatch. Stuttgart 1990.
  • Richard Mühe : Wristwatches. In: The German Clock Museum. Furtwangen 1992, pp. 104-108.
  • Helmut Kahlert: When the watch found the band. In: Uhren Magazin. Volume 3, 1992, pp. 114-120.
  • Gisbert L. Brunner: Wristwatches - From the first chronometer on the wrist to a coveted collector's item. 5th edition. Munich 1994.
  • Gisbert L. Brunner, Christian Pfeiffer-Belli: Wristwatches - from the forerunners to the Swatch. Battenberg Antiques Catalog. 2nd Edition. Augsburg 1994, ISBN 3-89441-157-0 .
  • Pieter Doensen: Watch. History of the modern wristwatch. Utrecht 1994.
  • Helmut Kahlert , Richard Mühe, Gisbert L. Brunner, Christian Pfeiffer-Belli: Wristwatches: 100 years of development history . Callwey, Munich 1983; further edition 1990, ISBN 978-3-7667-0975-2 ; 5th, extended edition (with a price guide by Stefan Muser, the owner of the Mannheim auction house Dr. Crott ), ibid. 1996, ISBN 3-7667-1241-1 (with an illustration of more than 1,500 watches and one from 50 to 1,200,000 DM extensive price list), idea and conception: Christian Pfeiffer-Belli.
  • Alfred P. Zeller: The classic wristwatch […] . Parkland, Cologne 1996, ISBN 978-3-88059-866-9 .
  • Michael M. Andressen: wristwatches I of the 20th century. Munich / Berlin 1996.
  • Gisbert L. Brunner, Christian Pfeiffer-Belli: Wristwatches. Wrist watches. Montres bracelets . Könemann, Cologne 2002, ISBN 978-3-8290-0660-6 .
  • Lucien F. Trueb: The Quartz Revolution - From Mechanics to Electronics and Back . In: Franz Betschon et al. (Ed.): Engineers build Switzerland - first-hand history of technology , pp. 354–374, Verlag Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Zurich 2013, ISBN 978-3-03823-791-4

Web links

Commons : Wristwatch  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files
Commons : Watches  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wiktionary: wrist watch  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Remarks

  1. ↑ Hans Jendritzki : From the tension spring drive. In: Writings of the Friends of Age Clocks. Issue 21, Ulm 1982, pp. 71-80.
  2. ↑ Already in 1571, the English Queen Elizabeth I of to her equerry and favorite, the Earl of Leicester, a small, rather bangle on a bracelet or ( "armlet" english) - probably in the form of a trinket have been given fortified pm -.
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y Helmut Kahlert, Richard Mühe, Gisbert L. Brunner, Christian Pfeiffer-Belli: wristwatches: 100 years of development history. 1996.
  4. ↑ Girard-Perregaux on vintagewatchstraps.com
  5. ↑ J. Hein: A Swiss wristwatch with an alarm clock that can be turned off and a protective grille over the glass from the period between 1914 and 1918. In: Watches and jewelry. Berlin (Ost), No. 1, 1984, pp. 22-24.
  6. ↑ See E. Jaquet, A. Chapuis: Technique and History of the Swiss Watch. London / New York 1970.
  7. ↑ Bruno Hillmann: The wristwatch - its essence and its treatment during repairs. Publishing house of the Deutsche Uhrmacher-Zeitung, Berlin 1925.
  8. ↑ Hans Jendritzki: The repair of the wristwatch. 1937.
  9. ↑ Fritz von Osterhausen: Callweys lexicon . Munich 1999, ISBN 3-7667-1353-1 ; P. 225
  10. ↑ Peter Aebi: Dedicated to John Harwood, the inventor of the automatic wristwatch. In: Neue Uhrmacher-Zeitung. No. 5, 1966, pp. 18-20.
  11. ^ Léopold Defossez: "Accutron", the Bulova electric wristwatch. In: Swiss Watches and Jewelry Journal. 1961, pp. 79-86.
  12. ^ Franz Schmidlin: Electric and electronic wristwatches. Lausanne 1970.
  13. ↑ Pioneering work on the quartz electronic wristwatch , accessed on August 3, 2019
  14. ↑ Peter J. Wild : Liquid crystal display evolution - Swiss contributions , accessed on August 3, 2019
  15. ↑ a b watch manufacturer: With mechanical-electronic hybrids against Apple Watch message from Heise- Verlag, Hanover, in November 2018 on the news portal heise online , accessed on November 22, 2018
  16. ↑ Milanaise bracelet , apple.com
  17. ↑ Swatch launches colorful Sistem51 , Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, June 29, 2014
  18. ↑ Swatch sistem51 purely mechanical automatic watch
  19. ↑ In-house caliber ( Memento from April 7, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  20. ↑ B. Humbert: The wrist-alarm clock. In: Swiss Watches and Jewelry Journal. 1958, pp. 385-397 (continued).
  21. ↑ The time , issue 2003/34, page 17