As we know watches have a long history, and the first real watch appeared in China.
A real watch must have an escapement, which was first used by Su Song, the prime minister of the Song dynasty, and which is the difference between a watch and a timer. He constructed a clock tower which worked by water, and there was just one second error one day! From one perspective, I think the fashionable watches have three stages by now.
1.The evolution of the giant clock to the bracket clock
After the old Song clock tower was destroyed in the Jingkang incident, China has never been the forefront of the time instruments. And then in 14th century, there appeared report clock on the tall buildings in Europe, but they were still very huge. But in 1656, Huygens designed the first pendulum, and the next year, with his guide, the young watchmaker S.Coster manufactured the first pendulum clock, and from then the bracket clock got up the stage of history.
2.The transition of bracket clock to the pendant watch
The bracket clock was still too big to carry with, so Huygens replaced the pendulum with gossamer to use the clockwork as the power and the gossamer as the speed controller, which provided conditions for the manufacturing of pendant watches. Various escapements were invented during 18th century, and Gaylor improved the H-escapement in 1726. In 19th, the pendant watches had already been very popular,and they were the same as today’s mechanical watch in form.
3.The development of pocket watch to the fashionable watch
In the second half of the 9th, some women bracelets were fitted with little pocket watch, which were called bracelets watch, but at that time they were just treated as jewelry, their practical value were neglected. The turning point was WW one. The military found the pocket watches were not adaptive, and the production of watch was in the trend, which was the predecessor of our fashionable watch. In 1926, the first self-winding watch was invented, in 1967 the Neuchatel developed the first quartz watch, which was produced as different Swiss brands. Then new technologies developed rapidly, and today, our fashionable watches have various designs and functions not just for the time.