The first mechanical time pieces were large, static clocks, but in the early 1500s smaller wearable versions were developed using simple spring devices that did not need power from falling weights. A innovation of immense significance, these portable ‘clock-watches’ enabled humans to track time, plan schedules and organise the flow of daily life, ultimately transforming civilisation.

Peter Henlein of Nuremberg, said by some to be the inventor of mainspring, was regularly producing clock-watches by the 1520s, his designs and those of other pioneering German inventors circulating throughout 16th-century Europe. Initially portable watches were bulky, round or spherical and suspended on a chain around the neck, or pinned to clothes, until the introduction of screws in the 1550s inspired flatter styles. Still, watches had no protective glass – only a brass lid – but in 1675 a new fashion emerged, reputedly popularised by English King Charles II, for smaller glass-lidded watches carried in the pocket. Subsequently pocket watches became luxury fashion items, although for decades they remained wildly inaccurate, typically losing several hours within one day! In the 1750s the lever escapement was introduced, reducing daily inaccuracies to one or two minutes, the minute hand becoming a feature of new models of watch.

Reflecting rising consumption in mid-late Georgian Britain, many working men saved their earnings for a gleaming silver watch. Carried in a small pocket in the waistband of breeches, silver watches were both male status symbols and portable wealth, usually the first items to be sold or pawned in hard times. During the 19th century, the watch was generally worn in the waistcoat pocket of the three-piece suit, having a long curb chain suspending seals, fobs and other ornaments. In 1849 a short watch chain or ‘Albert’ was introduced, passing through a buttonhole and fixed by a hook or bar. A handsome gold watch and chain, acquired through industry and worn with pride, came to symbolise the dependable Victorian man of business and continued to be worn by the older generation well into the 20th century. As more women went out to work in offices, banks and telephone exchanges from the 1880s and 1890s, they too wore gold watches, a neat pocket often incorporated into a smart cloth working costume.

From the early 1900s, a new trend arose for a ‘wristlet watch’ – a flat circular watch affixed to a leather strap. Initially encouraged by the sports of motoring and cycling, convenient campaign wristwatches also proved invaluable during the Boer War and again during WW1, after which they gradually became the modern form of 20th century portable timepiece.