Democratic Sentinel, Volume 4, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 September 1880 — The First Watch. [ARTICLE]

The First Watch.

At first the watch was about the size of a dessert plate. It had weights, and was used as a “pocket clock.” The e xrliest known use of the modern name occurs in the record of 1552, which mentions that Edward YI. had “ one larum or watch of iron, the case being likewise of iron'gilt, with two plummets of lead.” The first watch may readily be supposed to have been of rude execution. The first great improvement—the substitution of springs for weights—was in 1560. Tiie earliest springs were not coiled, but only straight pieces of steel. Early watches had only one hand, and, being wound up twice a day r they could not be expected to keep the time nearer han fifteen or twenty minutes in twelve hours. The dials were of silver, and, brass, the cases had no crystals, but opened at the back and front, and were

four or five inches in diameter. A plain watch cost more than sl/500, and after on*e was ordered it took a year to mite it.