Watch Fashion – The Perfect Watch for Your Lifestyle

Watch fashion is expansive. There are watches for every gender and taste. Watches for deep sea swimmers, pilots and adventurers of all terrains. There are watches for sports and leisure. And some watches take your calls and run your apps. Smartwatches have taken a large part of the market recently. They can do all the things that a wristwatch can do and have additional features, such as answering phone calls and radio-ing friends.

There are no records of the first person to invent the watch. The first watches were pocket watches and they were made in Germany and Italy. Some scholars claim that evidence suggests France simultaneously began making watches as well, however, it has yet to be conclusive. The earliest evidence suggests that these carriable (pocket) watches were used as early as 1512, and the earliest watch that has survived dates back to the 1530s (John Cronin, 2022). From their beginning, these little machines quickly spread throughout Europe. Many prominent figures held watches from early Lutherans to nobility, everyone wanted a watch (John Cronin, 2022). Watches quickly became a status symbol for the wealthy and the nobility. Watchmakers soon began to interweave works of art with their watches.

Until the early 20th century, wristwatches were unreliable and unpopular. Rolex is one the earliest companies to focus on making wristwatches reliable and popular. Rolex began in England but once they had built a bit of a reputation, they moved to the watchmaking capital, Geneva, to further their brand. Since the 1920s, Rolex has been building quality, reliable and luxurious watches. Rolex has developed watches for deep sea divers, pilots, mountaineers and explorers. The three main types of wristwatches are fully automatic, smart and quartz watches.

Bobs Watches

Automatic Watches

Fully automatic, also known as automatic or mechanical watches, are older and are based on the original winding watches, which needed to be winded after a certain period. Today’s automatic watches are self-winding, usually through the wearer’s movement. This feature was invented by a Swiss watchmaker in the 1770s. However, it was not implemented in the wristwatch till the 1920s by an English watchmaker.

Automatic watches are great because they do not need frequent stops at a repair shop for new batteries. They are also more likely to be crafted by an expert and with more attention to detail, however, they have more moving parts. This causes them to be less accurate, more rigid in their design limits and less resistant to bumps and scrapes. Each part can be expensive and repair work can cost more than a quartz watch. The overall cost of automatic watches can also be more than quartz watches due to said craftsmanship and the status afforded. Brands like Rolex, Rado, Orient and Seiko create timeless classic automatics that can be worn at any formal event as an accent piece.

CNET

Smartwatches

A smartwatch is a watch with a screen for a face. It can tell time and do a multitude of other tasks that most other watches cannot do. Many watches are marketed for health and sports as they can take vitals and data about an individual’s performance. Their designs vary depending on the brand, but they are usually larger to hold the necessary electronics and have a usable touchscreen. Many have the ability to change the default screen into different motifs. Additionally, the strap of the watch is usually customizable for different outfits and moods. Many tech companies, such as Apple, Samsung and Google, sell smartwatches to go with their other products like cell phones.

AFAQ

Quartz Watches

Quartz watches are watches that use batteries to operate. They were first invented in 1969. Quartz watches take advantage of a quartz’s ability to oscillate when an electrical current is run through it. The quartz watch uses this ability and runs a current into the quartz to count the number of oscillations. The watch counts 32,768 oscillations as one second.

Quartz watches are cheaper to produce, use fewer moving parts, are more durable, accurate and are easier to repair. This makes them easy to modify with intricate patterns and odd shapes. They can also be great as starter watches for children or everyday watches capable of withstanding contact with other items or falling damage. However, they need frequent replacement batteries and tend to have less craftsmanship than an automatic. This can be mitigated with solar watches, however, those need time in the sun and are more expensive than normal quartz. Many brands make quartz – G-Shock, Timex and Casio to name a few – and they can fit into any environment from formal to sporting events.

When Searching for the Right Watch, One Must Weigh all Options…

A person must think about their budget and their requirements for a watch. Do they need a watch for a special event, the office or for everyday use? Do they prefer a Quartz or automatic? Are they interested in antique or modern works? What about smartwatches? Each person is different but there will be a watch for them out there somewhere.

References

Cronin, John. Watch – an Illustrated Guide to Its History and Mechanism, The Crowood

Press, 2022. ProQuest Ebook Central.