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History of Pocket Watches

November 14, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Watches were first made in the 1500’s by Peter Henlein and it was a pocket watch. Pocket watches now are more of a luxury than anything else. Most people simply collect them and never actually wear them. Pocket watches are generally only worn now with a nice suit or other formal dress attire. Pocket watches were not generally worn by women mainly because most dresses didn’t have pockets.

Pocket watches were an amazing invention when they were first created. Clocks originally used weights to keep the gears moving. This made a small sized watch next to impossible to make. Instead of weights, pocket watches have springs that keep gears moving smoothly. This was such an amazing device that only the rich could afford to actually own one.

Not only did this watch signify your wealth but also your status. You were seen as someone important enough that they had to keep the time on them at all times. The busier the person, the more they needed to know the time. As the years went on the general public could afford to buy pocket watches. Just about anyone could now tell you what time it was and made life much easier for the common man.

These watches were mainly for men only. Woman had their own watches that were made for the wrist. It was considered “unmanly” to wear a wrist watch. This of course changed during World War I when men needed to wear wrist watches because their hands were busy holding their rifles. Men continued to wear wrist watches for many years and it wasn’t really until the 1950’s that men started to wear wrist watches more than pocket watches.

Most pocket watches now are found in antique stores and collectors cases. Children born after the 1980’s don’t know anything other than wrist watches. Taking a bit of time to teach children about the history of pocket watches and clocks will really help them appreciate the convenience of having a modern wrist watch.

If you like pocket watches because you think they’re interesting or you just want to have a piece of history, then you’re one of the few who can truly appreciate one of these time pieces. Some commonly made pocket watches can still be found for cheap but most are quite expensive now. Regardless of your desire to have one you can still learn to appreciate the history behind these great timepieces.

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Watches for the Active Person

November 14, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Technology has advanced a lot over the years and watches have also seen their fair share of changes. Each year new watches come out with more and more options to them. Not long ago just having a watch that was water resistant was an amazing thing. Now many watches come with added features that almost come right out of a James Bond movie.

Many of the new features you’ll find on watches don’t have much to do with time but are more for a convenience. Active people like runners, swimmers, hikers and divers find that having a wristwatch that has more than the ability to tell time is very handy. The luxury of having such a small device with many different features attached to your wrist is very nice.

You’ll find that as technology increases the options you have for your watch will become more than you can imagine. Some of the current features that you can find on wrist watches that really show how far we’ve come are:

  • GPS
  • Cell Phone/E-mail
  • Video/Audio recording
  • Blood Pressure Monitor
  • Heart Beat Monitor
  • Pedometer

Many of these features were built specifically for the active person. Many watches come with the ability to track how many steps you’ve taken and calories burned. These watches usually come with heart beat monitors to calculate how well your body is responding to the exercise your doing. Wrist watches like these are more designed for runners or swimmers. If you are a swimmer make sure that you get one that is water resistant.

One of the newer features added to wrist watches Global Positioning System (GPS). The watch bounces your location off a satellite in space to tell you where exactly you are. This is great for hikers and divers. If you get lost your watch will be able to tell you all sorts of interesting things. Most of these watches also come with a built in compass which helps you find your direction that much easier.

Wrist watches have come a long way in the last hundred years. If you watched the early James Bond films and wondered when we would get the watch that would transmit video form one place to another, you have that answer now. Active people have really been able to take the common wrist watch and make it in to a device they can easily use. If you’re an active person you should look into getting one of these amazing watches.

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Waterproof Watches

November 14, 2011 By Leave a Comment

A very common problem in the past was getting your watch wet. Watches that got water on or in them would stop working. The internal parts of the watch would stop working or rust over and eventually stop altogether. This problem occurred a lot more often than you think. Removing your watch to shower, wash your hands, do laundry and go swimming were just a few of the incontinences of having a non-waterproof watch.

Leave it to the amazing watch makers Rolex to come up with the first ever waterproof watch. In the past people thought it was impossible to submerge a watch and have it continue to work. Rolex made their claims and backed them up with the “Oyster” that they displayed submerged in an aquarium. After that just about every watch shop had an aquarium they could submerge the watch in. This gave birth to the now almost standard waterproof watch we see today.

Almost all watches today are waterproof to some degree. Many of them even have a depth of 50 feet or more. Many of the watches you’ll find today that are waterproof were made with the purpose of solving the everyday problem of getting watch wet. Most watches can now be put in the dishwater, laundry cycle, worn while showering and while washing your hands. These big problems were easily resolved with a little innovation.

Perhaps those that will benefit from these watches the most would be divers and swimmers. If you need to know how much time you have left in an underwater dive you’ll need a watch. This is great since you can either buy specialty watches or a standard watch. Waterproof watches undergo a great series of tests before they’re considered ready to use. These tests involve placing the watch in a dry tank and testing how much pressure it can hold. The same test is done but this time the water is added to the tanks. These tests help to ensure quality when you buy your wrist watch.

Waterproof watches have come a long way since they were first invented. Almost every watch now has waterproofing of some sort. If you’re just someone that needs a regular watch with added resistance or a diver that needs the protection you’ll be glad to know that waterproof watches come in all designs. This small piece of technology added to wrist watches has truly changed the way we see the world.

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