History: The First Wristwatch
October 28th, 2011 | 4 Comments | Comment and Win a Free Orient Watch Comment and Win a Free Orient Watch
In 1868, Patek Phillipe created the first wristwatch.
However, Constant Girard developed a lasting concept of wristwatches in 1880, when 2,000 watches were made for German naval officers. This production represented the first important commercialization of wristwatches.
For civilians, however wristwatches didn’t become popular for men for another 30 years. They were viewed as a feminine accessory and thought to be too dainty and inaccurate for men.
In 1904, pilot Alberto Santos Dumont asked Louis Cartier to come up with a timekeeping alternative that would allow him to keep both hands on the controls while timing his performances during flight.
Cartier and his master watchmaker, Edmond Jaeger, then developed the first prototype for a man’s wristwatch called the Santos wristwatch. The Santos first went on sale in 1911, the date of Cartier’s first production of wristwatches.
During WWI, soldiers were given wristwatches, called ‘trench watches,’ in order to view the time easily with their hands full. These watches were made with pocketwatch movements, so they were large and bulky and had the crown at the twelve o’clock position like pocketwatches.
At the end of the war, soldiers returned home sporting their trench wristwatches. Due to the public perception of manly-men wearing wristwatches, people no longer affiliated wristwatches with femininity.
After the war, pocketwatches went out of fashion and by 1930 the ratio of wrist to pocketwatches was fifty to one.
4 Comments | Comment and Win a Free Orient Watch
By Steve Balthrop on Oct 31, 2011
It is interesting that wrist watches, along with aircraft, modern bolt action rifles, and so many other things first became popular as a reasult of the War to End All Wars.
By Richard Best on Nov 15, 2011
I am in a play, “Yes, Virginia, There Is a Santa Claus,” set in 1897 and am researching the history of wrist watches to see if they were prevalent in that period. The consensus I have found seems to indicate that at least for the mainstream they did not become used by men until WWI. Thanks for your information which indicates somewhat otherwise.
By michael gilboy on Dec 4, 2011
old watch . new watch i would like to win one especally a orient auto matic
By Tony Ball on Dec 14, 2011
I for one am glad that Alberto Santos Dumont was smart enough to reuse the Germans idea of a wristwatch, because if he did not I think I would have mislaid a lot of pocketwatches by now. Clever chap!.