7 Interesting Facts About Watches

Watches are truly remarkable, from the intricate craftsmanship that goes into producing some of the finest mechanical watches for men to the complications found in antique pocket watches.

Watches are steeped in history and with history comes exciting and informative facts, below you will find seven of our favourite facts about watches that will get you through the mid-week blues:

• The ‘Omega Speedmaster’ was the favoured timepiece for astronauts heading into space and was worn by astronauts on many trips to the moon as well as American and Russian astronauts wearing it for the first meeting of Apollo and Soyuz.

• The earliest example of humans measuring the time through the current sexagesimal system relates to about 2000 BC.

• Watches are an important prop in films, in the James Bond movies Sean Connery wears a Rolex Submariner, whilst more recently Daniel Craig wears an Omega watch. In the Bourne Ultimatum, Matt Damon as Jason Bourne sports a TAG Heuer watch. The self-proclaimed watch brand of the movies is the Hamilton – they have appeared in 151 movies so far.

• The first pocket watches had one single hand showing the hours. Minute hands started being used only in 17th century.

• The first known wristwatch that had a perpetual calendar was manufactured using a pendant watch movement by the iconic Patek Philippe in 1925.

• Legendary mountaineer Sir Edmund Hillary wore a Rolex during the British Himalaya Expedition of 1953, when he became the first to reach the peaks of Mount Everest.

• The uni-directional bezel (don’t know what that is? Click here) found on high-end dive watches is there as a safety feature. The one-way bezels turn counter-clockwise only so that if the watch is accidentally hit in a dive, the bezel will not move clockwise. An accidental clockwise move would mean that elapsed time indicated on the watch would be less than the actual elapsed time. This could cause the diver to think they have more oxygen than they have, with them potentially paying with their life!

Other articles you may also want to read:

Watches through the ages

Nine items everyman should have in their wardrobe