# Early Watch (16Th Century)



## knirirr (May 5, 2008)

This just turned up in my RSS feeds and I thought that it might be of interest to some people here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/arts_and_culture/8313893.stm

It describes a painting containing an early pocket watch.


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## tall_tim (Jul 29, 2009)

You beat me to it - I had just copied the link!

I was wondering if anyone on here has it? :lol:


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## Guest (Oct 19, 2009)

Jeeze that's an old one! I knew they wore clocks around their necks in 14/1500 but I thought the pocket watch didn't come out until well into the 1600s...


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## Mikrolisk (Jan 23, 2008)

Thanks for the link!

Andreas


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## ValvesRule (May 20, 2009)

There was a theory for a while that the first real pocket watch was made by Peter Henlein of Nuremburg in 1505, but this has since been disproven.

They were nick-named "Nuremburg Eggs" because they were usually oval rather than circular (some were cylindrical, and Henlein's ones were built into spherical Pomanders).

Watches of this period were a bit rubbishy, inferior to sundials, and were more decorative than functional.

They were equipped with Verge escapements, balance wheels (as opposed to Foliots) and tall, thin FusÃ©es with Cat-gut "chains" (though, for some reason, some slightly later watches had Stackfreeds). Their springs (Mainsprings; no Balance Springs yet) powered them for 12 Hours.

Also, "Hog's Hair"/"Pig's Bristle" regulators. These consist of two short Pig hairs positioned one at each end of the balance's swing. They are mounted on movable arms so that the balance amplitude can be adjusted. Their effect is to gently brake and reverse the balance at the extreems of swing.

Their Movements were made entirely of Iron with no jewels at all.

Since they originated on the Continent [of Europe], and many European countries at that time had various kinds of 24 Hour system, most watches had the Hours 13 - 24 on the dial, even though the Hour hand (the only hand) made one revolution in 12 Hours, and the watch only ran for 12 Hours.


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