A watch is a timepiece intended to be carried or worn by a person. It is designed to keep working despite the motions caused by the person's activities. A wristwatch is designed to be worn around the wrist, attached by a watch strap or other type of bracelet. A pocket watch is designed for a person to carry in a pocket. The study of timekeeping is known as horology.
Rolex SA is a Swiss luxury watch manufacturer based in Geneva, Switzerland. Originally founded as Wilsdorf and Davis by Hans Wilsdorf and Alfred Davis in London in 1905, the company registered Rolex as the brand name of its watches in 1908. After World War I, the company moved its base of operations to Geneva, Switzerland in order to avoid heavy taxation from a recovering post-war Britain, and in 1920 Hans Wilsdorf registered Montres Rolex SA in Geneva as the new company name which eventually became Rolex SA in later years. Since 1960, the company has been owned by the Hans Wilsdorf Foundation, a private family trust.
Patek Philippe SA is a Swiss luxury watch and clock manufacturer founded in 1839, located in Canton of Geneva and the Vallée de Joux. Since 1932, it has been owned by the Stern family in Switzerland. Patek Philippe is one of the oldest watch manufacturers in the world with an uninterrupted watchmaking history since its founding. It designs and manufactures timepieces as well as movements, including some of the most complicated mechanical watches. The company maintains over 400 retail locations globally and over a dozen distribution centers across Asia, Europe, North America and Oceania, and in 2001 it opened the Patek Philippe Museum in Geneva.
Zeno-Watch is a Swiss watchmaker established 1868, but the Zeno name has been in use only since 1922. Specializing in aviation watches, they are one of the few independent Swiss watch manufacturers still in operation. Their factory is in Basel, Switzerland.
In horology, a tourbillon is an addition to the mechanics of a watch escapement. Developed around 1795 and patented by the French-Swiss watchmaker Abraham-Louis Breguet on June 26, 1801, a tourbillon aims to counter the effects of gravity by mounting the escapement and balance wheel in a rotating cage, to negate the effect of gravity when the timepiece is stuck in a certain position. By continuously rotating the entire balance wheel/escapement assembly at a slow rate, the tourbillon averages out positional errors.
In horology, a complication refers to any feature in a mechanical timepiece beyond the simple display of hours and minutes. A timepiece indicating only hours and minutes is otherwise known as a simple movement. Common complications in commercial watches are day/date displays, alarms, chronographs (stopwatches), and automatic winding mechanisms.
The Hamilton Watch Company is a Swiss manufacturer of wristwatches based in Bienne, Switzerland. The Hamilton Watch Company had its genesis as an American watch design and manufacturing company, which incorporated in 1892 and produced its first watch in 1893.
The History of Watches began in 16th century Europe, where watches evolved from portable spring-driven clocks, which first appeared in the 15th century.
The watch which developed from the 16th century to the mid 20th century was a mechanical device, powered by winding a mainspring which turned gears and then moved the hands, and kept time with a rotating balance wheel. The invention of the quartz watch in the 1960s, which ran on electricity and kept time with a vibrating quartz crystal, proved a radical departure for the industry. During the 1980s quartz watches took over the market from mechanical watches, an event referred to as the "quartz crisis". Although mechanical watches still sell at the high end of the market, the vast majority of watches now have quartz movements.
Chelyabinsk Watch Factory "Molnija" was a Russian watch and clockmaker based in Chelyabinsk, Chelyabinsk Oblast. Molnija (Молния) is the Russian word for lightning.
A handheld television is a portable device for watching television that usually uses a TFT LCD or OLED color display. Many of these devices resemble handheld transistor radios.
"WWW" stands for World Wide Web, which is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet.
Hans Wilsdorf was the founder of noted watch brands Rolex and Tudor.
Eterna is a Swiss luxury watch company founded in Grenchen, Canton Solothurn on 7 November 1856 by Josef Girard and Urs Schild. The company is now owned by Hong Kong-based Citychamp Watch & Jewellery Group Limited, an investment holding company formerly known as China Haidian Holdings.
Gallet (ˈgæl.eɪ) is a historic Swiss manufacturer of high-end timepieces for professional, military, sports, racing, and aviation use. Gallet is the world's oldest watch and clock making house with history dating back to Humbertus Gallet, a clock maker who became a citizen of Genève in 1466. The Gallet & Cie name was officially registered by Julien Gallet (1806–1849) in 1826, who moved the family business from Geneva to La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland. Prior to this date, operations commenced under the name of each of the Gallet family patriarchs.
The Gruen Watch Company was formerly one of the largest watch manufacturers in the United States. It was in business from about 1894 to 1958 and was based in Cincinnati, Ohio. It was founded in 1908 by German-born watchmaker Dietrich Grün, who changed the spelling of his name to "Gruen" because the letter ü does not exist in English.
The Trench watch (wristlet) was a type of watch that came into use by the military during World War I, as pocket watches were not practical in combat. It was a transitional design between pocket watches and wristwatches, incorporating features of both.
The Barrington Griffiths Watch Company, based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, is a designer and manufacturer of limited edition wristwatches using recycled Swiss movements. The design of their Modern Classic watch was inspired by the 1940s mechanical movement used in its construction. The Barrington Griffiths Watch Company is one of only a few companies making wristwatches in Canada. Although they use movements of Swiss origin, the components of the case are made in Canada, and the watch itself is assembled in Canada, satisfying the Canadian Competition Bureau's requirements for a "Made in Canada" product.
The waterproof wristlet watch was a type of watch manufactured in Switzerland and issued to British military forces after 1945. The (WWW) standard for wristwatches by the Ministry of Defence is believed to be one of the first official standards for a military issue watch.
Sant Blanc is a family owned watch and jewelry company founded in 1779 by Gaston Sant Blanc. Sant Blanc sells jewelry and luxury wristwatches to an international market.
