A Short History of the Wristwatch

From pocket to wrist

For centuries, portable timekeeping meant pocket watches. Early wristwatches were mostly considered jewelry for women. That began to change in the early 1900s: Cartier designed the Santos in 1904 for aviator Alberto Santos-Dumont, who needed to check the time without letting go of the controls.

World War I made the wristwatch practical for men. Soldiers needed to coordinate timing in the trenches, and "trench watches" with wire lugs and protective grilles became common.

Waterproof and self-winding

In 1926 Rolex introduced the Oyster, a sealed, water-resistant case, and proved it the next year when swimmer Mercedes Gleitze wore one across the English Channel. Self-winding wristwatches followed: John Harwood patented an early design in the 1920s, and in 1931 Rolex launched its Perpetual rotor, the basis of most modern automatic watches.

The golden age of tool watches

The 1950s and 1960s brought purpose-built watches: divers like the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms and Rolex Submariner (both 1953), the Breitling Navitimer for pilots (1952), and the Omega Speedmaster (1957), which NASA qualified for spaceflight and which was worn on the Moon in 1969.

The quartz crisis

In December 1969 Seiko released the Astron, the world's first quartz wristwatch. Through the 1970s and early 1980s, cheaper and more accurate quartz watches from Japan and elsewhere hit the Swiss mechanical industry hard, and many historic brands closed or were sold.

Revival and today

The Swiss industry regrouped. The colorful, affordable Swatch (1983) helped save it, and mechanical watches were reborn as objects of craft, design and emotion rather than pure necessity. Today, historic houses, independent watchmakers and a wave of microbrands make it one of the most exciting times ever to collect watches.