THE WATCH.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 2327, 10 September 1921, Page 1

THE WATCH.

One of the many interesting things, full of history and romance, which we carry about with us in our daily lives, which we are constantly seeing and using, and yet of which we know little, is the watch (says a London paper). The watch is the last step along the road which started with the sundial, the waterclock, the hour-glass and so on. The first mention that can be found about the manufacture of watches, as distinct from clocks, is at the cud of the fifteenth century, when a Nuremberg clockmaker, Peter Hele, gained fame through the manufacture of pocket clocks. Some of the most interesting of

the old watches are those that were in the possession of Mary Queen of Scots. Among her collection sbt3 had one watch in the shape of a skull, made of silver-gilt. The skull was covered -with various religious representations, and also with figures of Time. To open the watch the skull was reversed, and the under jaw rose on a hinge. The works were where the brains would be, and the dial-plate formed the roof of: the mouth.

Watches did not become popular, in England until the reign of Queen Elizabeth. They were then made without glasses, having a cover on each side. Another curious watch, dating from the time of James 1., is of oval form, and strikes the hours, has an alarm, and indicates the days of the week, age and phases of' ihe moon, the days and months of the year, and the zodiac.

In 1704 a watch was made for the King of France which, for the first time, had a simple spring to work it, and which only required a push to set it going- for 24 hours. Manufacturers were often trying to invent watches which would give forth tunes. In the reign of Catherine 11. of Russia a peasant named Kulubin made a repeating watch with a chant. It was the size of an egg, and had a representation of the tomb of Christ with Roman sentinels on watch engraved on it. On pressing a spring the stone would roll away, the sentinels fall, and angels and holy women appear, singing a chant. Napoleon had a watch which was wound by a heavy lever which rose and fell at every step he took, and thus, by an action in the works, wound the watch.

Among other interesting watches that are still in existence is a watch in the Swiss collections at Geneva, which is only three-sixteenths of an inch in diameter. This is inserted in the top of a pencil-case, and indicates hours, minutes, seconds, and also the days of the month. In 1070 a London clockmaker invented a watch which would indicate the time in the dark if a certain part of it were pulled. This was the original “repeater” watch.