WRISTWATCH DESIGN EVOLUTION

Figure 52. Patek Philippe 1968 First Wristwatch Figure 53. Girard-Perregaux 1884 German military watch. Figure 54. Cartier 1904 Santos

In the Guinness Book of World records, Patek Philippe is credited with having created the first wristwatch. It was an elaborate gold bracelet designed on commission for Countess Koscowicz of Hungary. While Breguet lays claim to having created the first wristwatch (Breguet archives list Breguet No. 2639, commissioned by the Queen of Naples on the 8th of June 1810 and completed on the 21st of December 1812. The design features a guilloche oblong-shaped case held by a wristlet of twister hair and gold thread),however, no public or private collection lists it on their inventory thus we can only hope that it will one day reappear. Whether the credit goes to the Breguet or Patek Philippe, we can be sure that watches at the point were made on a custom basis. The hefty commissions that gave birth to these pieces came from Royal Families and set a tone for watches as objects of luxury. Watches remained objects of luxury until 1880 when historian can confirm that the wristwatch was used on the battlefield as a safe means to read time and synchronize time without having to pull out their pocket watches. Girard-Perregaux was the first brand to produce large quantities of wristwatches for the German military in the 1880s. Despite the watch having made its way on the wrists of men during times of war, in the early 1900s, wrist watches were typically worn by women while the pocket watch was considered the Gentleman’s timepiece. The Santos, with it’s design, imbibed a masculine character and the watch worn constantly by Santos-Dumont was favored not only by him but also by the many others who saw it on his wrist. The aviator was gifted with a flamboyant personality, already a celebrity across Europe, and by wearing the watch he made its design equally famous. Whenever people saw a picture of him, they were intrigued by the the thing strapped around his wrist. They were impressed when they discovered it was an innovative timepiece. The Cartier Santos may have been just a pocket watch strapped onto the wrist, but it still played a huge role in shifting notions of what the wristwatch was.

Figure 55. Cartier 1914 Tank. Figure 56. Rolex 1927 Oyster Figure 57. Jaeger-LeCoultre 1931 Reverso

At the time, watchmakers were not really concerned with style. Yes, you did get many beautifully designed pocket watches, but these watches were kept in the pocket and the watchmaker’s main concerns had to do with how well the watch was running - how is it performing in this test or that exhibition? Cartier, being a jeweller, had an edge in that respect and was equally concerned with how the wristwatch would look on one’s wrist. It was this concern that gave birth to the the Cartier Tank. We can place it in history as one of the first wristwatches that wasn’t just a pocket watch on a strap. The Tank incorporated the geometry inspired from the Art Deco movement and integrated the face and the band together in a seamless design Upto this time, watches were delicate accessories. One would always have to be very mindful to keep it out of the reach of water and shock - the two biggest causes for watches to pack up. It was in this context that we began seeing the birth of a new genre of watches - ‘Tool Watches’.

On the 7th of October 1927, Mercedes Gleitze became the first English woman to swim across the English channel. The highly publicized swim captured Mercedes wearing a gold watch on a riband. Her testimonial later revealed that the new Rolex Oyster had been with her during the entire 11 hour swim in frigid water and had not lost a second’s accuracy. This cemented the Rolex Oyster with the reputation of being the first waterproof watch and significantly influenced the success of Rolex as a watchmaker. Watches, now having established dominance over the space of real estate on one’s wrist, was beginning to adapt itself to brave all of man’s varied activities. The Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso designed in 1931 is often looked at as the first sports watch. It was designed with a slide-andflip mechanism that allowed the dial and crystal of the watch to to be protected during a game of polo - The watch had a steel backside that could withstand the knocks that came with the game. The design of the watch, with its square face, established itself as an Art Deco classic before circular dial designs gained popularity during World War II.

Figure 58. Luminor 1948 Italian Dive Watch. Figure 59. Rolex 1953 Sir Edmund Hilary’s Oyster. Figure 60. Omega 1969 Aldrin’s Moonwatch.

The Luminor is given credit for having first changed the trend of size in watches. At the time, gent’s watches were 37 - 38mm in diameter. The luminor, having been built as a diver’s watch for the Italian Navy was 45mm in diameter - that’s a significant difference given the scale that watches operate in and especially huge when you see it on the wrist. Surprisingly, a lot of women took to wearing this. This was a period when watch companies were aggressively competing with one another to be the best of different things. Watches were subject to great trials to perform feats that they had never achieved before.

In 1953, we witnessed a momentous occasion when the crew of mountaineers including Sherpa Tenzing Norgay and Sir Edmund Hillary successfully scaled Mount Everest and got back safely. Despite the harsh conditions and high altitude, the rolex watches worn by all the team members neither broke down or lost a second. This established Rolex’s claim that their watches could survive anywhere on Earth. Also in 1953, The Great Dive Challenge tested how deep watches could be submerged in the ocean and established Blancpain as the creator of the world’s first dive watch. In 1957, The Omega Speedmaster Professional was approved by NASA to be used for timekeeping after having passed a series of stringent test that included temperature fluctuations between -160 degrees Celsius and +120 degrees Celsius. 1960 saw a special Rolex Oyster attached to the outside of a research submarine that ventured to a depth of 10,916 meters in the Mariana Trench without losing a minute’s accuracy.

Figure 61. Bulova 1961 Accutron Figure 62. Seiko 1969 Quartz Astron. Figure 63. Patek Philippe 1976 Nautilus.

Upto 1960, we saw watchmakers working feverishly to improve incrementally on the existing mechanical watch movements to get watches to work better than they did before. However, it wasn’t until Bulova introduced the accutron that we actually saw a completely different movement. It was the first time that someone had thought to use a transistor and tuning fork to drive the motion of the gears that guided the the movement of the hands on a watch. This innovation significantly reduced the number of parts required to craft a watch movement. It was no secret that the swiss were in race against all of europe and the rest of the world to craft more affordable and accurate timekeeping devices. All movements in existence still required a significantly high degree of precision craftsmanship and with the wheels of the industrial revolution turning, the swiss were very seriously looking to find a way to effectively mass produce watches. However, it was the Japanese company Seiko that beat them to it. On the 25th of December 1969, Seiko unveiled the quartz Astron, the world’s first quartz watch. This had a huge impact on the Swiss watchmaking industry and many legacy watchmakers were forced to close their doors and pack up. While the world was celebrating the ‘Quartz Revolution’, the Swiss were trying to cope with the ‘Quartz Crisis’ Seiko also released the now reputed Seiko 5 watches as part of their double edged plan to seize the market. These watches were reliable and much less expensive to inspire a whole new generation into the world of watches. The Quartz Movement saw the majority of remaining Swiss watch manufacturers exist as luxury manufacturers. It was in this place of luxury, that famous Watch designer Gerald Genta, introduced Stainless Steel to the luxury watch market through three of the most iconic watch designs in history - Audemars Piguet’s Royal Oak (1970), IWC’s Ingenieur (1976) and Patek Philippe’s Nautilus (1976).

Figure 64. Hewlett packard 1977 HP - 01

Perhaps we can look at the HP - 01 as the predecessor to the smartwatch. This was the first watch that combined an LED display, wristwatch and a calculator. By this time, the Casio and Seiko digital watches were also very popular and had created a niche in making highly durable watches, with multiple features which consumed very little battery. They were so reliable that the notorious Casio F-91W became a common component in many bomb making setups. The 1980s marked an air of freshness in Switzerland with the Swatch being the Swiss answer to Quartz Crisis, finally putting an end to it. As Michael Foley puts it, Swatch was the “T-shirt of watch companies.” They ushered in a new persona for watches from Switzerland by making watches fun, cheap, cool and disposable (while at the same time very collectible - certain collections that were born from collaborations with artists like Keith Haring are worth a lot of money today).

Figure 65. Swatch 1983 Swiss Quartz Figure 66. Apple 2014 Smartwatch

The Apple watch was a turning point in wristwatches and wearable technology. It’s creation marked the first mass adapted wearable technology whose functionality was sound and yet was still attractive as a design object - it did not have a negative impact on the perception of its wearer like we saw with the Google glass. In the first quarter of this year, the Apple watch outsold the entire Swiss watch Industry.