It wasn't until the 1920s that the wristwatch really became accepted in society as a viable and desirable alternative to the pocket watch. The gradual acceptance of the concept of wearing a timepiece on the arm sprang from necessity during the First World War, when soldiers found it impractical to keep their watches in their pockets. They devised leather straps that could be used to fasten the pocket watches to their arms and so the wristwatch was born.
Since those early days, watch technology has known no bounds. It has veered from the purely practical to the futuristically modern inventions of today that bear little resemblance to the familiar clock face most of us are accustomed to.
Many of today's modern watches that fall into the inexpensive to medium-priced bracket use electronic quartz movements to regulate them. However, high-end timepieces that are also valued for their craftsmanship and have a collectible appeal tend to rely more on mechanical movements. These watches hold their value on the market and are therefore often seen as an investment. There is a lively marketplace for those interested in buying and selling watches.
As well as telling the time - the most basic function of the watch - modern watch owners also require them to perform other functions. Showing the date, including day, month, year and even the phase of the moon, is a common feature thanks to modern watch technology, but many go even further. Novelty watches today incorporate digital and electronic technologies, pushing the boundaries to the extent that some don't have traditional clock faces. Instead, many display a series of lights that must be interpreted in order to read the time.
Timers and chronographs are also popular. The chronograph was first invented in the 18th century as a device to record the flight time of projectiles. It was later developed at the request of King Louis XVIII, who wanted a device to measure the length of time a horse race lasted.
Modern automatic chronographs had made their appearance by 1969, when companies such as Heuer, Hamilton and Breitling came together to develop the technology. The first automatic chronographs were called chrono-matics, which is possibly where the confusion between the words chronograph and chronometer comes from. The chronometer is a more highly specialised chronograph and must be certified as such by the Swiss Official Chronometer Testing Institute, known as the COSC.
