ANTIQUE POCKET WATCHES

How they come about?

Invention of the first watch happen when the mainspring was developed around 1500. It start with small portable clocks worn on a cord around the neck and were the predecessor to the antique pocket watch. The casings were generally of very luxurious and fine. Other that its main funtion (although they were inaccurate), it also decorate.

Silver, gold, or gilded watches were engraved. From 1630 onwards, watches were also decorated with polychrome enamel.

The development of the balance wheel in 1670 brought massive improvement on the accuracy of watch. What went along was the watch's function which became more and more important in design. Minute hands were added and dials with the hours marked in figures became prominent.

French watchmakers fitted wholly enameled dials from 1720 on and within a few decades the rest of Europe followed.

The invention the anchor escapement in 1755 was also very important to the development of the watch which made them much more accurate. Although this invention was ignored for almost 80 years, it did replace every other type of movement in the period 1830 to 1850 and has been used in virtually every mechanical watch mechanism since.

In nineteenth and twentieth century pocket watches were generally devoid of expensive enamel decoration. Their metal cases were plain metal that was sometimes embossed or engraved. Enamel's place was sometimes taken by cheaper painted horn.