The Earliest Known Watch

[Greg Davis]

I have a book that declares this to be the earliest known watch in existence.

http://home.flash.net/~tryppyr/earliest.jpg

It dates to about 1530 from Germany. It is made of gilded brass and is 4.8 cm in diameter. It is currently at The Walters Museum in Baltimore.

What say ye, fellow enthusiasts? Know ye of any that predate this, the alleged earliest example of portable horology known as watches?

- Greg

[Greg Davis]

I have a book that declares this to be the earliest known watch in existence.

http://home.flash.net/~tryppyr/earliest.jpg

It dates to about 1530 from Germany. It is made of gilded brass and is 4.8 cm in diameter. It is currently at The Walters Museum in Baltimore.

What say ye, fellow enthusiasts? Know ye of any that predate this, the alleged earliest example of portable horology known as watches?

- Greg

[Oliver Mundy]

It is usually said that the impulse for creating the first ?watches?, in the sense of spring-driven timekeepers small enough to be worn or carried about the person, was given by the work of Peter Henlein or Heinlein of Nuremberg, who died in 1542 and who is recorded as having made spherical watches at least as early as 1524. (The shape is important; the words used, such as ?horologium? in Latin or ?Uhr? in German, are ambiguous and might refer to a table-top clock, but a globe-shaped timepiece clearly could not be stood on a table and must have been intended for carrying.) No example of Henlein's work is known to exist. Britten, who is my main source for these details, does not illustrate or identify any watch as being earlier than 1550, and so the Walters Museum watch, with its exceptionally clear provenance, must be a very strong candidate for the oldest surviving example.

[Greg Davis]

The book does not refer to it as the earliest "dated" watch. It is referred to as the earliest "known" watch. May boil down to the same thing though. I'd say that adding it is the earliest surviving watch may also be true...

Unless there is an earlier example known to someone.

As an aside, the book said these early watches were accurate to within twelve hours per day. :smile:

- Greg