Watch stand
A watch stand (also Portemontres or Chronos ) is used for the visible storage of watches . Historical watch stands were ornate decorative items that were used to store pocket watches in private households. Simply designed watch stands as a special form of the goods stand can also be found today for the presentation of wristwatches .
Watch stands for storing pocket watches were usually designed in such a way that the pocket watch disappears into the watch stand except for the dial and they appear like table clocks after the pocket watch has been picked up. Another version provided that the clock was hung on the outside of the clock stand. The center of the stand was always reserved for the clock.
history
The first watch stands emerged after pocket watches were mass-produced in the 18th century and thus found their way into bourgeois circles. The earliest watch stands were made of faience, porcelain or mostly wood. The wooden specimens are usually carved and painted from one piece, only the base was made separately and attached to the stand. The motifs of the early stands are varied. Common motifs are primarily landscape idylls, animals such as lions and eagles and motifs from Greek mythology. Often they also address time, a popular motif is the time god Chronos , who uses insignia such as an hourglass, book of hours, scythe or skull to refer to the volatility of time.
In the period of Classicism and Biedermeier , the forms became stricter. There were watch stands in the form of miniature grandfather clocks, miniature furniture or simple cases with inlays made of pewter, tortoise shell or ivory. The new materials used were bronze, sheet metal and Berlin iron , which were suitable for the machine production of the stands. Some machine-made watch stands were shown at the world fairs of the 19th century and gained widespread use due to their popularity and low price.
The development of the wristwatch in the 20th century caused the demand for pocket watches and thus for watch stands to drop rapidly. Today they are only used to display pocket watches or wristwatches in sales rooms or shop windows.
literature
- Detlev Richter: everyday object and decorative item. Watch stand . In: Weltkunst , Volume 54, Number 16. Munich, August 1984. pp. 2094–2099.
- Klaus Mölbert: pocket watch stand. From the art of carving to industrial production. A 200 year history . Ergon-Verlag, Würzburg 1997. ISBN 3927960306 .
