Watches have been around for hundreds of years and time has been fascinating man for even longer. The first watch was invented sometime in the 1500’s by Peter Henlein. The first sundials were believed to exist somewhere as early as 5000 BC. Without these great steps in history modern watches would not exist at all.
In today’s world we still have many of these early creations but most of them can only be viewed in museums. Watches now come in many different forms. While there are many different types of watches, almost every watch falls into one of two categories:
- Analogue
- Digital
Analog watches have three hands that rotate as time passes. Each hand has a specific purpose. One is for the hour, the next is for minutes and lastly the seconds hand is constantly moving. Digital watches don’t have hands but instead display three sets of numbers that use an LED display to show them.
These are the two types of display you’ll find when it comes to watches. These watches come in a variety of types though. Some of the most common types of watches are:
- Water proof
- Zero gravity
- Quartz
- Solar
- Automatic
Each of these watches perform different functions. Water proof watches are exactly how they sound, they’re meant to go deep underwater. Zero gravity watches are made specifically to work in high altitude environments like space. Quartz and solar watches refer to the type of power they run on. Lastly automatic watches are mainly meant for analogue watches and it means they don’t have to be wound.
Pocket watches still exist today but are more of a novelty than a time piece. Most early watches, like pocket watches, were meant to be wound up. Eventually you’d lose minutes and even hours sometimes. This became a big inconvenience and thus the automatic watch was born. No longer did people have to manually wind up their watches.
Many analogue watches are also obsolete with the introduction of digital watches. No gears or springs are required and digital watches offer many more features than your standard watches. Almost all digital watches have a calendar, stop watch, alarm and large number display. Some analogue watches can give you the day of the month and time but not much more than that.
Watches will continue to change as time goes on and soon digital watches will also be the thing of the past. With so many types of watches you’ll be able to find something that suits your own needs. Maybe a simple time piece is all you need and the extra features would simply go to waste. Next time you go to buy a watch, consider what you really need in a time piece.
