Mechanical wristwatches (as opposed to battery-powered ones) offer us what sci-fi writer William Gibson called the "tamogotchi experience": the sense that we are wearing and tending to a living thing that whirrs and ticks on our wrist.
Throughout the years, these machines have kept the trains running on time and helped the Man in the Grey Flannel Suit
make his two-martini lunch. Sadly, however, these gems are now
frequently absent from our wrists thanks to those ubiquitous portable
time-telling devices—laptops and cellphones.
1. 1794 | William Anthony's "The Pearl Star"
Why it Matters: The Pearl Star is one of the first watches with expanding hands.
The Story: Attributed to William Anthony of London, this pocket watch
has an oblong case with automatically extending hands. When the hands
are at noon, for example, they are fully extended up to the top of the
case. When they are at 9:15, they automatically shorten to fit without
touching the sides of the case.
2. 1800 | Perrin Freres "Wandering Hours"
Why it Matters: One of the first "digital" watches that used a unique system of hands to display the time.
The Story: The vision of a "digital" watch—meaning
one that showed the hours in minutes using rotating numerals instead of
hands—has always been an important pursuit in watchmaking. Perrin Freres
of Switzerland created an amazing variation on this with the Wandering
Hours in 1800. Three hands circled a central pivot and on the tip of
each, four small hour numerals spin into place at the end of each hour.
With the case closed, the watch looks like a fuel gauge showing minutes
and hours but inside you find a riot of gears and hands.
3. 1910 | The Rolex Oyster Perpetual
Why it Matters: The Rolex Oyster redefined where you could take a watch by making it waterproof.
The Story: Like most great innovations, the Rolex
merges two simple technologies to create something that no one thought
they needed but then became indispensible. The technology, the perpetual
movement, was first conceived by Louis Perrelet in the 1750s and was
perfected by Rolex. A small weight wound the watch when the wearer moved
his or her arm, resulting in a watch that ran "perpetually" with no
need for daily winding.
The next innovation was a crown that screwed down to protect the
inside of the watch from water. They advertised the first model in 1910
by dunking the watches in aquariums in watch shops around the world.
Rolex thus became synonymous with diving watches.
4. 1923 - Patek Philippe "Packard"
Why it Matters: The result of a bet, the Packard is one of the first ultracomplicated watches.
The Story: James Ward Packard, of Packard automobile
fame, wanted to own the most complex watch in the world. He sent his
order to Patek Philippe in Switzerland and they sent back a watch in
1916 with 16 complications—watchspeak for features—including a star map
that showed the night sky from his bedroom window in Warren, Ohio.
5. 1933 | Patek Philippe "Graves"
Why it Matters: This beast held the "complicated" crown for more than 50 years.
The Story: Not to be outdone by Packard, New York
banker Henry Graves Jr. commissioned his own complicated watch from
Patek Philippe. The result, called the Graves Complication, has 24
complications and sold for $11 million in 1999, making it one of the
most expensive watches in the world.
6. 1973 | The Audemars Piguet Royal Oak
Why it Matters: This is the watch that made steel, titanium and ceramic popular watch materials.
The Story: While the name invokes pork and stuffy
French drawing rooms, Audemars Piguet (pronounced Aw-de-mar Pig-ay) was
founded in 1854 and for years made high-end watches for an exclusive
clientele. While its neighbors in Switzerland focused on precious
metals, jewels and bling, in 1972 Piguet hired designer Gerald Genta to
make the world's first stainless-steel luxury watch, the Royal Oak. It
originally cost around $2000 and has gone through many incarnations
since then—including a massive $42,000 Outdoor Survivor edition that
looks like something Neo would wear in The Matrix—but the Oak's
octagonal case remains true to its origins.
7. 1989 | Patek Philippe Caliber 89
Why it Matters: The 89 is the most complex watch in the world.
The Story: This huge watch now hangs in the Patek
Philippe Museum in Geneva. Commissioned for the 150th anniversary of the
company in 1988, the watch has 33 complications and is about as big as a
hockey puck. Although the average smart watch can probably beat it for
accuracy and features, to be able to cram astrological charts,
calendars, and chimes into a mechanical device reminds us that
mechanical watches still haven't lost their mystery. The only drawback?
All this clockwork still needs to be wound daily.
8. 2003 - Breguet "Reveil du Tsar"
Why it Matters: This watch is one of the most elegant, complex watches on the market.
The Story: In 1813 Parisian watchmaker Breguet
originally made a complicated pocket watch for Tsar Alexandar of
Russia—it included pedometers for measuring his army's marching cadence.
In 2003 the company, now based in Switzerland, created a complicated
wristwatch based on the original watch. The new version includes a
miniature alarm, multiple retrograde hands (hands that return to zero
when they reach the end of the dial) and another time-zone indication.
With an austere, iPod-like design, the Reveil du Tsar is elegant and complicated at the same time.
9. 2006 - Jaeger-LeCoultre Gyrotourbillon
Why it Matters: This is the first watch to use Space Age techniques to perfect an invention created in the 18th century.
The Story: Watchmaker Abraham-Louis Breguet created
the first tourbillons—French for "whirlwind"—during the French
Revolution in order to offset the effects of gravity on the balance
wheel, a tiny gear inside the movement that metes out the seconds. The
tourbillon turned the balance wheel on one axis during the day, ensuring
that no single side of the wheel was pulled more than any other.
Jaeger-LeCoultre
wanted to improve on the mechanism and so created the gyrotourbillon, a
three-dimensional wheel that rotates like a tiny planet on the watch
face. Using modern engineering techniques and a 300-year-old invention,
Jaeger-LeCoultre built one of the most mechanically stunning watch
movements in the world. Inside the watch is a miniature globe that
rotates on all axes like a miniature planet.
