Christmas collection

We have put together a fantastic collection of watches, selected especially as ideal Christmas gifts. Priced from as low as £15, our Christmas watch collection has a large selection of watches for both men and ladies. As always, as well as this selection, we continue to bring you one of the largest watch selections in the UK.

Watch - general information about watches

Watches are almost a part of every human beings accessory these days. They are available in many shapes and sizes that suit the tastes and style of the individual. Watches are made separately for men and for women. Nowadays kids watches are also in trend with digital watches in the foray.

To understand the evolution of watches we should understand how it evolved. The first evidence of watches was the sundial of Egypt and Mesopotamia. Later evolved the portable watches in Italy around 1524 B.C. The reason for this late development of timepieces was due to the fact that these watches were driven by weight. These watches had only one hand and had to be wound at least twice in a day. Even then the time was inaccurate in these timepieces.

The next step in watch history was the use of the balance spring in the timepieces. These timepieces showed accurate time to the precision of fraction of a minute. Hence their popularity increased. In these watches the second hand was added and they had to be wound only once in a day not once in twelve hours as was earlier.

With the passage of time the watches became more and more precise and the advancement of technology lead to improvement in the watches. The watches then began to be considered as jewels and not an ordinary piece of machine used for seeing time. America first started the trend of producing watch in masses by the 1850s. With the advent of the 20th century the watches began to be mass-produced in Europe and U.K.

Nowadays there are many types of watches in the market to choose from right from stainless steel watches, digital watches, jewel watches, sports watches and many more. There are different styles for men and women.

Men’s Watches
The collection of men is sports watches, leather band watches and dress watches. There are various shapes of the dial to suit each individual taste and the straps also coming in various colors to suit different tastes.

Jewellery watches for men are also available like Cyma watches and the Swiss watches which are known for its elegance and décor. These watches cannot be surpassed in their style and charisma. The making of these watches also undergo rigorous processes to make them the best in the world.

Women’s Watches
Women are attracted by the designs and style of the watch. Hence women’s watches come in various exotic shapes and colors. The jewellery watches for women have elegance and charm makes one long to own a watch.

Kid’s Watches
Kids have become fashion conscious in the 21st century and watches for them should have a special appeal. Kids watches come in various shapes. The most popular ones in the market are those with digital dial and come in cartoon shapes.

Watch manufacturers have over time understood the importance of watches and their necessity has only increased. With the jet age and global trends watches showing the times of 5 to 7 countries are available in the market. Such watches are useful for the global travelers who are always on the move.

Watches – A Brief History

Almost all of us today wear watches. Without a second thought we trust these tiny machines to let us know what time of the day it is. For many people without a watch we would rarely be on time and and life itself could be chaos.

Where do these tiny little marvels come from though?

In this article we will look (briefly) at the history of watches. It's only in modern times that the watch you wear every day is common. Once they were an item that only the rich could afford. To really cover the topic we would actually have to get into the history of clocks as well. In this article we will just cover the history as it applies to watches.

The Earliest Watches 1500 – 1675

The first watch (that we know of) that was produced by one Peter Heinlein. It was in the early 1500's that Heinlein came up with the first means to drive a mechanism for a watch. His invention was the coiled mainspring. Prior to this even small clocks were rare, as they were driven by weights, and smaller timepieces tended to be very inaccurate.

Later in the 1500's watches of French and German origin were produced, and around 1575 the Swiss got into the business of making pocket watches.

At this point in time watches were really a novelty, and were only something you could imagine owning if you were very rich. They took hundreds of hours to produce and weren't accurate at all. Accuracy was improved somewhat nearing 1600 with ideas like the fusee being implemented to help maintain more constant tension on the mainspring, but even then these watches were nothing like the ones you and I know today. It was also around this time that brass movements began to be used (steel was used in the first watches).

From 1600 to 1675 there wasn't a lot of innovation that went into watchmaking. Watches became more sought after, but most of the changes in the 1600's went into decoration. Precious metal cases, engraved watches, and more, made the watch a sought after item for jewelry.

The Balance Spring 1675 – 1700

It was after 1675 that the next advancement came in the watchmaking industry. That innovation came in the form of the balance spring. There is some argument as to who first designed the balance spring, but it was this point where watches began to become accurate as timekeepers.

Prior to this watches were prone to lose an hour in a day. Accuracy was not a feature of the earliest watches. With the balance spring a watch became much more accurate. Instead of losing fractions of an hour is a day, suddenly they would keep time to within a few minutes.

Innovation 1700 – 1830

With the base technology in place for a watch they continued to improved over the next hundred or so years. In the early 1700's rubies were placed in the movements, by 1720 they were quite common. Around 1780 the first self winding movement was invented. Other technological advancements in watch movements continued in the 18th century.

Later in the century the innovation went into the materials and designs of the watches. A few of the other notable advancements of this time:

> 1807 : The first recording chronograph
> 1809 : First American watchmaker
> 1844 : The start, stop, and reset chronograph is invented.
> 1853 : Swiss watchmaker, Tissot, makes the first dual timezone watch.


1868 – The Wristwatch is Born

It was in 1868 that the first wristwatch was made. This new advanced style of watch was invented by Swiss watchmaker Patek Phillipe. It wouldn't be for another 30 years that the wristwatch really began to become popular, but by 1880 the Imperial Austrian Navy all wore them.

Advancements to the Wristwatch
Beyond 1900 things really begin to pick up for the wrist watch. As new advances in manufacturing came about as we move into the industrial era, so did technology in almost every aspect of things we build. As it applies to watches here are some of the most notable changes throughout the 20th century:

> First alarm wrist watch - 1914
> The first automatic wrist watch – 1923
> First water resistant Rolex -1927
> First watch for children – 1933
> Rolex makes the first watch to also display a date – 1945
> First battery powered watch – 1953
> First LCD display watch -1972
> Swatch watch is born 1983
> Tissot produces the first watch with both digital and analog readouts – 1987

Conclusion

Many of us take our wristwatches for granted. They have become such a part of daily life that most of us don't give them a second thought. The next time you strap on your watch remember that it isn't just a watch; in reality you are strapping on more than 500 years of innovation.