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History of watches

Watches evolved from portable spring driven clocks, which first within the 15th century. Portable timepieces were made possible by the invention of the mainspring. Even though some sources erroneously credit Nuremberg clockmaker Peter Henlein (or Henle or Hele) with inventing the mainspring about 1511, numerous references to 'clocks with out weights' and two surviving examples show that spring powered clocks appeared in the 15th century. Henlein is also often credited with constructing the very first pocketwatches, mostly due to a passage by Johann Cochlaus in 1511.

Peter Hele, nonetheless a young man, fashions works which even probably the most learned mathematicians admire. He shapes many-wheeled clocks out of small bits of iron, which run and chime the hours without weights for forty hours, whether carried at the breast or in a handbag

and simply because he was popularized in a 19th century novel. Nevertheless, many German clockmakers were creating miniature timepieces during this period, and there is no evidence Henlein was the first. Also, watches weren't widely worn in pockets till the 17th century.

The first timepieces to be worn, made in 16th century Europe, had been transitional in size in between clocks and watches. These 'clock-watches' were fastened to clothing or worn on a chain about the neck. They had been heavy drum shaped cylindrical brass boxes several inches in diameter, engraved and ornamented. They had only an hour hand. The face was not covered with glass, but generally had a hinged brass cover, frequently decoratively pierced with grillwork so the time might be read with out opening. The movement was produced of iron or steel and held together with tapered pins and wedges, until screws began to be used after 1550. Numerous of the movements included striking or alarm mechanisms. They generally had to become wound twice a day. How psychic!