Watches are well-known everyday items. It has been 200 years since the first watch was made. The originator of the watch was neither a Swiss watchmaker nor a watch merchant; it was, according to research, surprisingly Napoleon, Emperor of France. In 1806, to win the heart of Empress Josephine, Napoleon ordered craftsmen to make a small "clock" that could be worn like a bracelet on the wrist – this was the world's first watch. For a period after that, pocket watches remained a symbol of men's status and position, while watches were seen as women's accessories.

When did humans begin to have the concept of "time"?

Human ancestors first understood the passage of time from the alternation of day and night. About six thousand years ago, the "clock" first appeared on the stage of human history: the sundial was born in the Babylonian Kingdom. Ancient people used sundials to determine the time based on the length and direction of the sun's shadow. Four thousand years ago, the clepsydra emerged, allowing people to know the time day and night. The appearance of clocks was a later event, after the middle of the 13th century.

Early mechanical clocks, appearing around 1270 in northern Italy and southern Germany, used weights for power and chimed the attached bell every hour, automatically announcing the time. In 1336, the first public clock was installed in a Milanese church. Over the next half-century, clocks spread to various European countries, and churches in France, Germany, and Italy built clock towers.

Soon, the mainspring was invented, greatly reducing the size of clocks. In 1510, German locksmiths first produced pocket watches. At that time, clock-making seemed to be only a side business for locksmiths, until later, with increasingly higher demands for the accuracy of clocks and increasingly complex clock-making techniques, professional watchmakers emerged.

In 1806, a watch specially made for Empress J. Josephine, Napoleon's wife, is the earliest record we know of regarding watches. It was an ornamental watch made in the shape of a bracelet. At the time, pocket watches were the prevalent symbol of status and position in the men's world, while watches were regarded as women's accessories.

In 1885, the German navy commissioned a large number of watches from Swiss watchmakers. The practicality of watches was recognized by the world, and they gradually became widespread.

At the beginning of this century, WILSDORF&DAVIS, the predecessor of ROLEX, launched silver gentlemen's and ladies' watches, which were a great success and spurred various watch manufacturers to compete in the research and development of watches. Switzerland, which was already famous for its pocket watch craftsmanship, was also a leader in watchmaking. ROLEX developed the completely waterproof watch "ROLEX OYSTER" in 1926 and was the first to launch the self-winding watch "OYSTER PERPETUAL" in 1931. LONGINES was not to be outdone. Its precision aviation clock flew across the Atlantic with the American aviator Lindbergh, gaining great renown. In 1929, it launched the chronograph watch, and the following year developed the precision aviation watch "CHRONOMETER" based on this.

The late 1960s opened a new page in the history of mechanical watches: In 1969, Seiko developed the world's first quartz electronic watch, reducing the daily error to within 0.2 seconds. In 1972, Hamilton in the US invented the digital display watch, eliminating motors and gears from watches.

New technologies in watch manufacturing have emerged continuously, yet mechanical watches have not completely disappeared. Although their production has greatly decreased, the manufacturing techniques have been preserved. In particular, Swiss watch manufacturers, even today when quartz watches dominate, still favor mechanical watches and continue to produce high-end mechanical watches, supplying them to countries around the world.