The first mechanical watch.
The first mentions of mechanical watches date back to the end of the 6th century. Most likely, it was a water clock in which a mechanical device was built to activate additional functions, such as a striking mechanism.
Real mechanical watches appeared in the 13th century in Europe. They were not yet reliable enough, so they had to constantly check the time by the sundial. Their clockwork worked using the energy of a descending weight, for which stone weights were used for a long time. To start such a clock, one had to lift a very heavy weight to a considerable height.
It is worth noting that mechanical watches created in the 13th-14th centuries were very large and were rarely used. They were installed only in monasteries so that the monks could gather for services on time. It was the monks who decided to apply 12 divisions on the circle, each of which corresponded to one hour. Only in the 16th century did clocks appear on city buildings.
In the XIV-XV centuries, the first floor and wall clocks were created. At first, they were quite heavy, as they were driven by a weight that had to be pulled up every 12 hours. Such clocks were made of iron, and a little later of brass, and in design they repeated the tower clock.
In the second half of the 15th century, the first watches with a spring motor were created. The source of energy in such watches was a steel spring, which turned the wheels of the watch mechanism during unwinding. The first table spring clock was made of bronze by an unknown craftsman. The height of this watch was half a meter.
The first portable spring clocks were made of brass and had the shape of a round or square box. The dial of such a watch was horizontal. Convex brass balls were placed in a circle on it, which helped to determine the time by touch in the dark. The arrow was made in the form of a dragon or other mythical creature.
Science continued to develop, and with it mechanical watches improved. The first pocket watches appeared in the 16th century. Such devices were very rare, so only rich people could afford to purchase them. Very often, pocket watches were decorated precious stones... But even then they continued to check the time by the sundial. Some watches even had two dials: mechanical on one side and solar on the other.
In 1657, Christian Huygens assembled a mechanical pendulum clock. They were distinguished by extraordinary accuracy in comparison with all existing devices for counting time. If before the appearance of the pendulum, clocks were considered accurate if they lagged behind or rushed by 30 minutes a day, now the error was no more than 3 minutes a week. In 1674 Huygens perfected the regulator of a spring-loaded watch. His invention required the creation of a qualitatively new trigger mechanism. A little later, this mechanism was invented. It was the anchor.
Huygens' inventions are widely used in many countries. Watchmaking started to develop actively. The error of the watch was gradually decreasing, and besides, the mechanisms could be wound up once every eight days.
In connection with the increased accuracy of watches, the first movements with a minute hand were created in 1680. At the same time, a second row of numerals appeared on the dial plate to indicate minutes, in which Arabic numerals were used. And in the middle of the 18th century, a watch with a second hand appeared.
At this time, the Rococo style dominated in all forms of art. In watchmaking, his influence was expressed in a variety of watch shapes and materials used, an abundance of carved patterns, curls, external jewelry made of gold and precious stones. At the same time, coach watches came into fashion. It is believed that the travel, or carriage clock, appeared thanks to the French mechanic and watchmaker Abraham-Louis Breguet.
Most often they were rectangular with glass side walls. A brass handle was attached to the top of the case, which served to carry the watch. All brass watch surfaces were plated with gold. It should be noted that appearance travel clocks remained virtually unchanged throughout the century.
Thanks to improvements in the movement in the second half of the 18th century, the watch became flatter and smaller in size. But, despite the changes in the appearance of the watch, they still continued to be the prerogative of the elite. Only in the second half of the 19th century they began to be produced in large quantities in Germany, England, the USA, and Switzerland.
Mechanical watches have evolved for at least five centuries. Today they are conventionally divided not only by the type of clockwork (pendulum, balance, tuning fork, quartz, quantum), but also by purpose (household and special).
Household clocks include tower, wall, table, wrist and pocket watches. Specialized watches are subdivided depending on the purpose. Among them you can find scuba diving watches, signal, chess, anti-magnetic watches, and many others. The prototype of modern mechanical watches is the pendulum clock of H. Huygens, created in 1657.
Surprisingly, no one even knows the approximate date of the creation of the world's first wrist watch. Many experts and researchers believe that the debut movement, designed to be worn on the wrist, was invented by the renowned master Breguet.
This accessory was ordered by the sister of the great French commander Napoleon Bonaparte. In terms of accuracy, these watches were simply terrifying, so they were used only as jewelry by noble ladies. The movement of this accessory required colossal improvements to be perceived as a means of displaying time. A radical change in the production of wristwatches took place during the First World War. In difficult field conditions, soldiers had to constantly track time. The pocket watch was not a very suitable solution for this purpose. As a result, wristwatches began to be mass-produced for military needs.
In the 1930s, watch movements became much more perfect. the wrist watch has become an accessory showing the status of a man, his social position. Many different models have appeared on the market, differing in price and quality. But I must say that not everyone could afford to wear a small watch mechanism hidden in a precious case.
The "ancestor" of modern wristwatches
And after the end of the Second World War, wristwatches became available to a wide range of people with different income levels. Then this accessory was as much a necessity as a mobile phone is today.
And in 1969, the first quartz movement was invented in Japan. The wrist watches equipped with it had a high accuracy of movement and a relatively low price. That is why they have gained such popularity.
The improvement of the watch mechanism has led to the fact that today not only ordinary mechanical and quartz accessories are available to us, but also multifunctional electronic watches.
The men's fashion of the coming winter season makes the highest demands on watch design. Models should be bright, charismatic and a little pretentious. Whether you love sporty style, prefer underlined luxury or stay true to the unchanging classics - choosing the perfect watch will not be difficult.
Modern watches. Season 2015.
The modern man's watch promotes the absolute triumph of multifunctionality. If you are interested in changes in the field of men's fashion, then you should definitely get a watch equipped with many options. It can be moisture protection, compass, stopwatch. The more functions, the more relevant the model. The design of such watches can be defiantly bright or laconic and "laconic".
Sports watch highly acclaimed male fashion the upcoming season, easily tolerate low temperatures and heavy loads, they are not afraid of scratches and moisture. Welcomed original form dial and bright colors. With such a watch, you can easily engage in extreme sports and lead an active lifestyle.
Men's fashion in winter 2014-2015 approves of the triumph of colors and expensive materials. The image of a successful man will look complete when complemented by a watch, decorated with precious stones, made in bright colors. Such an accessory will not let you get lost at the party. 
Men's fashion for the coming winter doesn't mind the classic trends. Fashion watches may have simple forms, calm color schemes. A stroke that emphasizes the respectability and sophistication of the model is the strap made of exotic leather. This accessory will be the perfect choice for a business meeting.
The first hours were ... stellar. From observations of the motion of the Moon and the Sun in Mesopotamia and Egypt, about 4,000 years ago, methods of the sexagesimal time frame arose.
A little later, the same system independently emerged in Mesoamerica, a cultural region of the Americas that stretches from the center of modern Mexico to Belize. Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua and northern Costa Rica.
All these ancient clocks, in which the "arrows" were the rays of the Sun or shadows, are now called the Sun. Some scientists refer to the sundial as stone structures-circles like Stonehenge, found in different parts of the world.
But megalithic civilizations (the ancient ones, those that made structures of large stones without using a binder solution) did not leave behind written evidence of time recording, therefore scientists have to build and prove very complex hypotheses of understanding time as matter and the actual origin of clocks.
Egyptians and Mezhdurechens, or Mesopotamians, are called the inventors of the sundial. However, the time was counted first: they divided the year into 12 months, day and night - 12 hours, hour - 60 minutes, minute - 60 seconds - after all, in Mesopotamia, or Mesopotamia, the kingdom of Babylonia. 
This was done by the Babylonian priests using a sundial. At first, their instrument was the simplest watch with a flat dial and a central shaft that casts a shadow. But during the year the sun set and rose in different ways, and the clock began to "lie".
The ancient sundial was improved by the priest Beroz. He made the dial of the watch in the form of a bowl, exactly repeating the visible shape of the firmament. At the end of the needle-rod, Berosus fixed a ball, whose shadow measured the clock. The path of the sun in the sky was accurately reflected in the bowl, and on the edges of it the priest made markings so cleverly that at any time of the year his clock showed the correct time. They had only one drawback: the watch was useless in cloudy weather and at night.
The Beroza clock has served for many centuries. They were used by Cicero, they were found on the ruins of Pompeii.
The origin of the hourglass has not yet been clarified. They were preceded by water clocks - clepsydras and fire clocks. Sand, according to the American Institute (New York), could have been invented in Alexandria in 150 BC. e. 
Then their trace in history disappears and appears already in the early Middle Ages. The first mention of the hourglass at this time is associated with a monk who served in the Cathedral of Chartres (France) using a sand chronometer.
Frequent references to the hourglass date back to around the 14th century. Most of them are about the use of clocks on ships, where it is simply impossible to use fire as time meters. The movement of the vessel does not affect the movement of sand between the two vessels, nor does the change in temperature, therefore the hourglass - for sailors: bottles - showed more accurate time in any conditions.
There were many models of hourglasses - huge and tiny, serving various household needs: from performing a church service to measuring the time required to make baked goods.
The use of hourglass began to decline after 1500, when mechanical watches began to be actively used.
Information on this issue is contradictory. But most scientists are inclined to believe that they were the first to create a mechanical watch in 725 AD. e. Chinese masters Liang Lingzan and Yi Xing, who lived during the Tang Dynasty. 
They used a liquid escapement mechanism in the watch. Their invention was improved by the masters Zhang Xisun and Su Song of the Song Empire (late 10th - early 11th century).
However, later in China the technology fell into decay, but it was mastered by the Arabs. Apparently, it was from them that the liquid (mercury) escapement mechanism became known to Europeans, who, from the 12th century, began to install a tower clock with a water / mercury escapement mechanism.
The next clockwork is weights on chains: a wheel drive is set in motion by a chain, and it regulates the spindle travel and a folio-shaped rocker arm with moving weights. The mechanism was highly imprecise.
In the 15th century, devices with a spring movement appeared, which made it possible to make watches small and use not only on towers, but also in houses, to carry them in a pocket and even on a hand.
There is no exact data on the invention. Some sources name 1504 and a resident of Nuremberg, Peter Henlein. Others associate the appearance of the wristwatch with the name of Blaise Pascal, who simply tied a pocket watch to his wrist with a thin rope. 
Their appearance is also attributed to 1571, when the Earl of Leicester presented a bracelet with a watch to Queen Elizabeth I. Since that time, wristwatches have become a women's accessory, and English men have come to the conclusion that it is better to wear a skirt than a watch on the wrist.
There is one more date - 1790. It is believed that it was then that the Swiss company “Jacquet Droz and Leshaux” released the first wristwatch.
It seems that everything connected with the clock is somehow mysteriously hidden in the wrong time or history. This is also true for electronic watches, for the invention of which there are several applicants at once. 
The most probable seems to be the "Bulgarian version". In 1944, the Bulgarian Petr Dimitrov Petrov went to study in Germany, and in 1951 to Toronto. The talented engineer becomes a member of NASA programs, and in 1969, using his knowledge of space technologies, creates the filling for the first electronic clock "Pulsar".
The watch is produced by Hamilton Watch Company, and the most authoritative watch expert G. Fride calls their appearance "the most significant leap forward since the hair-like clock spring was invented in 1675".
Continuing the theme of the history of jewelry of Napoleon and Josephine, I propose to touch on the topic of watches of those years, then the owners of this simple accessory today were few and the watch was more likely not an object of necessity, jewelry, which the ladies, it turns out, were shy ...
So:
Special chic - watches
Two centuries ago, watches were expensive not only because they were made by jewelers. This non-functional toy required the factory several times a day. Still, Josephine ordered the watch for 3,000 francs from Breguet in 1799. A year later, a gold pocket watch covered with deep blue enamel was ready. Inside the case there are convex hands and a dial, not covered by glass. Today the meaning of such a decision is not clear. And at that time, it was considered the height of indecency to open the watch in full view of everyone - it was necessary to quietly, by touch, by hand determine the time. What room for imagination! But two hundred years ago the jokes were different. And also, if you quietly wind the clock in a corner with a golden key, then there will be no end to those who want to ask about your health!
Gold watch Hydrangea with diamonds and blue enamel 
Breget watches
The Empress Josephine ordered a watch from the famous Abraham Breguet for her daughter Hortense. The monogram "H" - the first letter of her name (Hortensia in French Hortens) was immediately laid out on the case with diamonds. In 1804, after the coronation of Napoleon, the jeweler added twelve diamonds around the perimeter of the case, and a crown appeared over the monogram “H”. Josephine solemnly presented this watch to her daughter when she married the Dutch king Louis (Napoleon's brother). This exquisite little thing is famous not only for its belonging to the Breguet company, which was considered the pinnacle of watchmaking, but also for the fact that the design was extraordinary for its time.
In 2007, the rarity was sold at auction at Christie’s auction house for $ 1,300,000.
Josephine is a woman inventor. We should be grateful to her for her favorite wristwatch - the Empress is credited with the idea of \u200b\u200bthis practical accessory. From the famous Parisian jeweler Nito, she ordered two gold bracelets decorated with precious stones. In one she asked to make a clock, in the other - a calendar. The gift was intended for the daughter-in-law, the wife of Yevgeny's son, August Amalia of Bavarian Leuchtenberg. They say it was a wedding gift. Only here is a problem: the wedding of Napoleon's stepson, with the aforementioned August Amalia, took place on January 14, 1806. And Josephine ordered a watch with a bracelet in 1809. So there was another reason.
After reading this material, I wondered if the authorship of the wristwatch really belonged to Josephine. Information on the world wide web on this topic does not indulge in unanimity ...
There are many debaters, therefore, I will give different hypotheses:
1.
When exactly the first wrist watch appeared - no one can give an exact answer to this question. It is known that pocket watches existed in the 17th century, but for wearing on the wrist, according to most experts, they were created in 1812 by the watchmaker Breguet by order of Napoleon Bonaparte's sister, the Queen of Naples. According to the description in the Breguet archives, it was an oblong watch, equipped with a silver dial and a thermometer.
2. Wikipedia:
Later appeared pocket watches, patented in 1675 by H. Huygens, and then - much later - and wrist watches. At first, wristwatches were only for women, jewelry richly decorated with precious stones, characterized by low accuracy. No self-respecting man of that time would have put a watch on his hand. But wars changed the order of things, and in 1880 the company Girard-Perregaux began mass production of wristwatches for the army.
3.
The dispute between themselves is between two respected Swiss firms - PATEK PHILIPPE and the House of Breguet. The company PATEK "PHILIPPE" confirms that they were the inventors of this accessory back in 1868. According to the House of Breguet, their wristwatches were made already in 1810 ...
One of the first inventions of mankind was the invention of watches. However, the invention of a mechanical clock that shows the current time (regardless of cloudy weather, twilight or night time (sunny), the amount of water or sand (water or sand), the amount of oil in a bowl or wax (fire) ... in 1337 in a Parisian cathedral Notre Dame de Paris lit a giant candle-column, which was used to measure a whole year of life), was the most important invention of mankind.
Researchers studying the history of the invention and the time of the first mechanical watches have not agreed on when the first time tracking mechanisms appeared. Some give the palm in the invention of mechanical watches to a certain monk from the city of Verona. The inventor's name was Pacificus. Other researchers believe that this inventor was a monk named Herbert, who lived in a monastery in the Spanish city of Sala manca in the 10th century. For his scientific research, he was accused of witchcraft and expelled from Spain. This, however, did not prevent him from becoming Pope, Sylvester II. (His papacy lasted from 999 to 1003.) It is reliably known that in 996 Herbert designed and built a kettlebell clock for Magdeburg. It can be concluded that mechanical watches appeared almost simultaneously and independently of each other in different countries - the course of development of human technical thought led to this.
In the first movements, six main components could be distinguished:
... Engine;
... Gear wheel transmission mechanism; (the period of rotation of the wheels in a gear transmission depends on the ratio of the diameters of the wheels included in it or, which is the same, the ratio of the number of teeth. Choosing wheels with a different number of teeth, it was easy to choose the ratio of the number of teeth on the meshed wheels, so that one of them makes a revolution in exactly 12 hours. If you "put" an arrow on the axis of this wheel, then it will also make a revolution in 12 hours. It was also possible to pick up wheels with such a ratio of the number of teeth that one of them could make its revolution in one hour or in one minute. Accordingly, the minute or second hands could be connected to their axes. But such an improvement will be made later. Only in the 18th century. And until then, the clock had only one hand - the hour.
... Bilyanets. (Bilyanets or, in Russian, a rocker) - an oscillatory system, a prototype of a balance, which does not have its own oscillation period; it was used in stationary and portable clocks until the 19th century. The device that ensures the uniform movement of the gear wheels of the clock mechanism is called BILIANETS by experts;
... Trigger distributor;
... Pointer mechanism;
... Arrows translation mechanism.
The engine of the first mechanical watch was set in motion by the potential kinetic energy of the load due to the influence of the earth's gravity force on it. The load - a stone or later a weight - was attached to a smooth shaft on a rope. The shaft was originally made of wood. Later it was replaced by a shaft made of metal. The force of gravity forced the load to fall, the rope or chain unwound, and in turn caused the shaft to rotate. The power reserve was determined by the length of the rope: the longer the rope, the longer the power reserve of the watch. The clockwork should have been located, perhaps, higher. This was a problem for such a device of the mechanism - the load needed to "fall" somewhere. To satisfy the condition, a structure was built, as a rule, in the form of a tower (hence the first mechanical clock got its name - tower clock). The height of the tower had to be at least 10 meters, and the weight of the load sometimes reached 200 kilograms. Through intermediate gears, the shaft was connected to the ratchet wheel. The latter, in turn, set in motion the arrow. The first mechanical watch had one hand (like a "primitive" sundial, in which the gnomon, a single pole, indicated the current time of day). And the direction of movement of the hand of the first mechanical clock was not chosen by chance, but determined by the direction of movement of the shadow cast by the gnomon. The number of time indices (divisions on the dial) was also inherited from the sundial.
The earliest mechanical watches with an escapement mechanism were made in the Tang Dynasty (June 18, 618 - June 4, 907) in China in 725 AD by the craftsmen Yixing and Liang Lingzan.
From China, the secret of the clockwork came to the Arabs. And only from them appeared in Europe. 
The prototype of the first mechanical watch was the Atnikiter mechanism, discovered by the Greek diver Lycopantis near the Antikythera island in the Aegean Sea, at a depth of 43 to 62 meters on a sunken ancient Roman ship.
This event took place on April 4, 1900. The Antikythera mechanism had 37 bronze gears enclosed in a wooden case. There were several dials with arrows on the case.
The Antikythera mechanism was used to calculate the motion of celestial bodies. The dial on the front wall was used to display the signs of the zodiac and the days of the year.
Two dials on the back of the case were used to simulate the position of the Sun and Moon relative to the fixed stars.
The first tower clock in Europe appeared in the 14th century. It is interesting that the English word clock itself, the Latin word clocca and a number of similar words in other European languages \u200b\u200boriginally did not mean “clock”, but “bell” (very similar to the sound in Russian: bell -clocca - clock). The explanation is trite - the first tower clock had neither a dial nor hands. They did not show the time at all, but produced signals by striking the bell. The first such clocks were located on the monastery towers, where there was a need to inform the monks about the time of work or prayer.
A clear evidence of the existence in the XIV century of the tradition coming from the monastery clocks are tower clocks in England and France - with a strike, but without a dial. The first mechanical watches with a dial and a hand (so far one) appeared in Europe in the 15th century. And it was not the hand that rotated in them, but the dial itself. The dial has been traditionally divided into 6, 12 and 24 divisions. The only arrow was vertical.
The tower clock, which was invented and built in the XIV-XV centuries, was also called astronomical. Such clocks were built in Norwich, Strasbourg, Paris, Prague. The tower astronomical clock was the pride of the city.
The cathedral, located in the French city of Strasbourg, is one of the oldest in Europe. The tower clock appeared on it in 1354. The height of the watch is 12 meters, and the diameter of the annual calendar wheel is 3 meters. 
Every noon, instead of the standard ringing, the clock showed a whole performance: guards came out to the crowing of a rooster, and three wise men prayed before the Mother of God. The clock showed not only the time, but the current year.
They displayed dates of major church holidays in the coming year. An astrolabe was erected in front of the clock, which showed the movement of the moon, sun and stars. At a certain time, a solemn hymn was sung on special gongs. The watch was subsequently reconstructed several times. So, after the Great French Revolution (1789 - 1794), a large globe appeared in front of them, showing the location of more than 5,000 stars of the Galaxy in the sky above the city.
Higher accuracy was acquired by the astronomical clock with the invention of the pendulum device, which provides counting of equal time intervals. This invention was made in 1657 by Christian Huygens van Zeylikhem (Dutch mechanic, physicist, astronomer, inventor 04/14/1629 - 07/08/1695).
The history of watchmaking in Ancient Rus.
… .In the Novgorod Chronicle of the Battle of Kulikovo in 1380, one can find: “Blood was shed from 6 o'clock to 9 o'clock beating them. If we do not know that the time in the chronicle is indicated according to the church account, then the essence of the issue would remain unknown to us. In ancient Russia, daytime and nighttime were counted separately. And the countdown was made from sunrise to sunset (daytime hours) and from sunset to sunrise (night hours).
Traditionally, it was believed that watchmaking was not held in high esteem in Russia. But the first tower clock in Russia appeared almost simultaneously with the tower clock in Europe. A more thorough study of the archival documents revealed that even the chroniclers of Novgorod the Great in the 11th century indicated not only the days, but also the hours of the most worthy and remarkable events.
The first tower clock in Moscow was erected by a monk (monk) Lazar in 1404. The clock was built in the courtyard of Grand Duke Vasily, the son of Dmitry Donskoy, whose palace was located exactly on the same place where the Grand Kremlin Palace now stands. Then it was the second watch in Europe.
Lazar Serbin was born in Serbia from here and received such a nickname. Lazar came to Moscow from the "Holy Mountain". This is Mount Athos, located in the southeastern part of the Greek island of Ayon Oros in the Aegean Sea. The monastery near the mountain was founded in 963.
How these clocks were arranged is not known for certain. Published in Moscow in the third quarter of the 16th century, "The Front Chronicle of Ivan the Terrible" or "Tsar-Kniga", there is a color miniature depicting the start of the "chapel" (this clock was also called "watchmaking").
Monk Lazar tells the Grand Duke Vasily I about the construction of his watch. 
Judging by the drawing, they had three weights, which indicates the complexity of the clockwork. It can be assumed that one weight set in motion the clockwork, the other - the bell-striking mechanism, and the third - the planetary mechanism. The planetary gear showed the phases of the moon.
There are no hands on the clock disc. Most likely, the dial itself was rotating. Rather "literal" because instead of numbers it had Old Slavonic letters: az-1, beeches-2, lead-3 verb-4, good-5, and further alphabetically by Cyril and Methodius. 
The watch caused genuine delight among the population and was considered a real wonder. Vasily the First paid Lazar Serbin "one and a half old rubles" for them. (at the rate of the beginning of the XX century, this amount would have amounted to 20,000 gold rubles).
For decades, this tower clock was not only the only one in Moscow, but throughout Russia. The installation of the first tower clock in Moscow was mentioned in the annals as an event of great national importance.
… .55.752544 degrees north latitude and 37.621425 degrees east longitude. Geographic coordinates of the location of the Spasskaya Tower of the Moscow Kremlin ...
The most famous clocks in Russia and Russia are the Kremlin chimes, the chimes installed on the Spasskaya Tower of the Moscow Kremlin.
Courante (fr.) - chime (dance, first salon), from dancecourante - (literally) “running dance, from courir - to run< лат.сurrerre - бежать. Музыка этого танца использовалась в старинных настольных часах.
In 1585, the clock was already on the three gates of the Moscow Kremlin towers. Spasskaya, Taynitskaya and Troitskaya.
In 1625 the English mechanic and watchmaker Christopher Galloway, together with the Russian blacksmiths-watchmakers Zhdan, his son Shumila Zhdanov and grandson Alexei Shumilov, installed a tower clock on Spasskaya. Thirteen bells were cast for them by the caster Kirill Samoilov. During a fire in 1626, the clock burned down, in 1668 the same Christopher Galloway restored it again. The clock "played music" and showed the time: day and night, indicated by Slavic letters and numbers. And then the dial was not a "dial", but "an index word circle, a notable circle." The role of the arrow was played by the image of the sun with a long ray, fixed vertically and motionlessly in the upper part of the knot circle. The disk itself was rotating, divided into 17 equal parts. (This was the maximum day length in the summer.)
IN different time chimes performed: the march of the Preobrazhensky regiment, the melody of DS Bortnyansky "If our Lord is glorious in Zion", the song "Ah, my dear Augustine", "Internationale", "You have fallen a victim", works by MI Glinka: "Patriotic song "and" Glory. " Now the anthem of Russia to the music of A.V. Alexandrova.
Such a detailed acquaintance with the structure and operation of the clockwork of the tower clock makes it easier to understand the operation of the clockwork of the wall clock. The use of a load (weight), and later a spring as a motor driving the gear wheels of a clockwork, and later a spring (photo balance-coil, photo of a balance-pendulum), together with the invention and application in the clock mechanism of a device that ensures the uniform movement of the gear wheels of the clock mechanism, BILYANTSA made it possible to reduce both the dimensions and the weight of the watch. The use of the Fusei in the design of the watch mechanism greatly contributed to the reduction in the size of the watch.
The engine, driven by the kinetic energy of the load due to gravitational force, where the rotation of the mechanism of the gear wheels was almost uniform (the weight of the changing length of the rope or chain can be neglected) was supplanted by a clock with a spring. But the spring motor has its own "nuance". The steel spring, as it “unfolds”, transmits a “dying” force to the gear mechanism. It “weakens” and the torque changes. The use of a device in the design of the clock mechanism to preserve and maintain a uniform spring force helped to eliminate this drawback. This device is called a fusea (stress on the letter "e").
The invention of the fusée was attributed to the Prague watchmaker Jakob Zech. Researchers attribute the first use of this device to the early 16th century (around 1525).
Until in the archives of Leonardo da Vinci, drawings were not found describing the same device, and their author was "a genius of all times and peoples." The drawings are dated 1485. Historical justice has triumphed. The authorship of the invention was assigned to Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci.
LeonardodiserPieroda Vinci (April 15, 1452 - May 5, 1519), painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, writer, inventor. A striking example of a "universal person" (Latin homouniversalis).
Fuzea is a truncated cone, which is connected to the barrel of the mainspring using a special chain.
Among specialists, the chain is known as the Gaal chain. On the lateral surface of the fusée, there is a groove in the form of a conical helical spiral, into which the Gaal chain is placed, when the latter is wound around the fusée. The chain is attached to the cone at the bottom of it (at the point of the largest radius) and is wound around the cone from the bottom up. At the base of the cone is a gear that transmits torque to the watch's main wheel system. As the winding of the spring is spent, the fusea compensates for the drop in torque by increasing the gear ratio, thus increasing the uniformity of the watch, for the entire period of the movement from one winding to the next. (photo 300px-Construction_fuse). After the invention of the free escapement by the English watchmaker Thomas Muidge in 1755, the need for the use of the Fusée clock in the mechanism disappeared.
The introduction of these inventions helped to reduce the size of watches. The watch was able to "live" with people in their homes. This is how the room clock appeared.
FIRST ROOM HOURS. LUCERNE WATCH.
The first indoor clocks, indoor clocks, began to appear in the 14th century Britain. They were so huge and heavy that it never occurred to hang them on the wall. For this reason, they stood on the floor - a grandfather clock. In their scheme and structural elements, they differed little from the large tower clock. The wheel system with weights and bells was housed in an iron or brass body.
The so-called "alfalfa" (modern) appeared in English watchmaking workshops around 1600. Initially, the cases of these watches were made of iron. Later, bronze or brass was used as a material for the manufacture of wall clock cases. The name "alfalfa" seems to have arisen because of the shape of their body (they resembled old candle lanterns). According to another version, their name originated from the word "lactten", which meant "brass".
Both versions are nifty enough:
... From Latin lucerna - candle, lamp;
... Lactten is brass.
... Lucerne (German Luzern)
Lucerne is a city in Switzerland on the shores of Lake Lucerne, at the foot of Mount Pilatus. The city was founded during the Roman Empire, some researchers attribute the date of its foundation even more early date... The official year of foundation of the city is 1178.
During the religious wars in France in the second half of the 16th century, the Huguenots, fleeing reprisals, were forced to emigrate to Switzerland. Among them were many talented artisans and watchmakers, including.
Today, the Swiss watch industry ranks third among its own exporting industries. The watch industry in Switzerland has a special place. (This version of the origin of the name "alfalfa wall clock" has not yet been taken into account and not considered as a possible explanation for the origin of the definition "alfalfa").
As for the first household or pocket watches in Russia, here, before the beginning of the 20th century, foreign watchmakers played the first creak. The first watches were very expensive and looked more like a piece of jewelry. They began to be imported to Russia even under Ivan III at the beginning of the 16th century. They were either ambassadorial gifts to the king and his court, or expensive goods for the rich. At the beginning of the 17th century, the first wall clocks appeared in Russia. English watchmakers began to make them.
THE FIRST ROOM AND WALL CLOCK OF THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE.
The “window to Europe, cut through” by Peter I gave Russia an opportunity to get acquainted with watchmaking in the West. Catherine I, Elizaveta Petrovna and Catherine II were donated pendulum and pocket watches of the best European watchmakers of that time.
In Russia, Catherine II the Great even made attempts to create a watch industry.
In 1774, watchmakers Basilier and Sando, thanks to financial assistance and material support from Catherine, organized the first watch manufacture in Russia in Moscow. In 1796 two watch factories were founded. One in St. Petersburg and the other in Moscow. However, the factory in Moscow closed after less than 10 years of operation. The factory in St. Petersburg lasted a little longer, but it also closed.
His Serene Highness Prince Grigory Aleksandrovich Potemkin-Tavrichesky (09/13/1739 - 10/05/1791) organized a factory school in his estate Dubrovna (Belarus) in 1781.
To transfer knowledge in watchmaking, the Swede Peter Nordsteen, 1742-1807, Ruotsi, Sweden was invited. In this factory school, 33 serf students were trained in watchmaking. After his death, Catherine II bought the factory-school from G.A. Potemkin. The Empress issued a decree according to which the factory was transferred to Moscow. A special building was built for the factory in Kupavna, Moscow province. Clocks of “any kind” produced at the factory: wall clocks, striking clocks, pocket clocks, were not inferior in quality to those of European masters. But only a small part of them was sold, and the bulk was provided to the royal court.
In Russia, indoor wall clocks and table clocks and pocket clocks began to spread widely in the 18th century. On Myasnitskaya in Moscow, the "Watch yard" was formed, where the masters worked as watchmakers. On this street, watch workshops began to open in the future. Among them was the watch workshop of the brothers Nikolai and Ivan Bunetop. In the middle of the 19th century, their "craftsmanship" gained fame, and the brothers were invited to restore the Kremlin chimes on the Spasskaya Tower. The famous watch workshops of D.I. Tolstoy and I.P. Nosov were located on Tverskaya. At the beginning of Nikolsky Pereulok in the house number 1/12 there was a watch shop of the merchant Kalashnikov. Mikhail Alekseevich Moskvin served as a clerk there. He was fond of mechanics and watch design. In his father's house there was a family heirloom - a clock from the late 18th century. Mikhail Moskvin learned his skills from the best watchmakers in Austria. So already in 1882 a watch with the “MM” brand appeared in Russia. And the first clocks branded "MM" were floor and wall clocks.
Pavel (Pavel-Eduard) Karlovich Bure (P.Bure1810 - 1882) watchmaker, St. Petersburg merchant, founder of the famous watch brand “Pavel Bure”. PC. Bure founded his own business in Russia in 1815. The quality of the watches was recognized and he became a supplier to the “Court of His Imperial Majesty”. However, these were mainly pocket, table and mantel clocks. They were mainly used by wealthy people.
The mechanisms of pocket and wall clocks were made by the watch firm "V. Gabyu".
WALL CLOCK OF CZAR RUSSIA. (Late 19th century - early 20th century).
In Russia (Russia), cheap and rough wall clocks (the so-called "walkers" or "yokal-shchiki") are made by artisans in the village of Sharapova, Zvenigorodsky district, Moscow province.
Walkers are small mechanical wall clocks of a simplified device with weights.
Walkers are very cheap (from 50 kopecks) wall clock, with one weight, without a fight.
Here is what you can read in the Proceedings of the Saratov Scientific Archival Commission: (Publication of the printing house of the Shchetinin brothers, Serdobsk district, Saratov province, Serdobsk - 1913):
“... the production of clocks and wall clocks in the village of Sharapovo, which began in the 60s of the 19th century, continued to develop at the beginning of the 20th century ... ... the production of wall clocks in Moscow was no higher than in the village of Sharapovo ... ... In Moscow, the technique of making wall clocks is still at a low level ... "
WALL CLOCK IN SOVIET RUSSIA.
In Soviet Russia, the production of wall clocks was mastered at the Second Moscow Watch Factory, which also produced household alarm clocks and industrial and street electric clock systems.
The decision to create its own watch industry was made by the Council of People's Commissars in 1927. In September 1930, the 1st State Watch Factory started operating in Moscow, and in 1931 - the 2nd State Watch Factory.
Walkers are the affectionate name for a simple home kitchen wall clock. They were so simple, cheap and unpretentious that their production continued for many years. And it all started with handicraftsmen from the village of Sharapovo - "Switzerland near Moscow" ...
WALL CLOCK OF MODERN RUSSIA.
Modern mechanical wall clocks also use a kettlebell or spring energy source. The accuracy of such a mechanism: + 40 -20 sec / day (first class of accuracy).
Wall clocks with quartz clockwork and a battery are also widely used. They use a quartz crystal as an oscillating system. The first quartz watch was released by HAMILTON in 1957. High-quality household quartz watches have an accuracy of +/- 15 seconds per month.
IN modern life Wall clocks are used not only as time measuring devices, but also function as interior details and room decoration. Wall clocks often reflect the tastes of the homeowners.
Designers come up with wall clocks that amaze and amaze with their originality.
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The most accurate clocks are atomic. The most accurate atomic clocks are in Germany.
For a million years, they will “sin” only for ONE second.
