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 Wristwatches have been one of modern man's
handiest gadgets. Though watches came off as time-telling tools, with time they
evolved to serve up man with versatile bits - they served as calendar, compass,
time-recorder and the state-of-the-art ones have brought a whole microcomputer
within themselves. Apart from its diverse and sometimes extraordinary
functionalities, wristwatches have always been an archetype of fashion and
style.
From the last century and onwards there is almost a separate genre of
wristwatches devoted to embellish and underscore one's fashion statement. These
luxury wristwatches have been held as an emphatic fashion accessory and some of
these manufacturers produce exclusive ranges of watches that are marvels both
in terms of efficacy as well as elegance. En bloc, wristwatches are today's one
of the very few possessions that are indispensable by their own right and, at
the same time, define and set trends in the world of fashion & style.
The form in which we experience
wristwatches came about in a series of steps. The earliest form of portable
chronometers was the miniature sundials. By the 15th century came timepieces
that were small (or «big»?) enough to be worn round the waist. The source of
energy of the mechanical watches with analogue dials was a coil called the
Mainspring invented by Peter Henlein. Watches came to be smaller in size with
the invention of Balance Spring by the later part of the 17th century and it
was this invention that helped transfer the watch from the waist to pocket. The
pocket-watch era lasted for about the whole of 18th century. 20th century's
growing affinity towards miniaturization was the major impetus behind the birth
of wristwatches. With more accuracy and ease, timepieces moved from the pockets
to the wrists and a new trend evolved that subsists till date. Changes came in
the efficacy as well as durability with time - wristwatches were made
waterproof, self-winding, antimagnetic and shock-resistant. In the 1960s came the
electronic watches. Electronic watches were powered by the piezoelectric
oscillation of a quartz crystal to mark time and its dials were driven by an
electronic circuit.
Digital wristwatches were the latest of the
innovations that came in the 1970s getting rid of all the moving parts. These
were timepieces with liquid crystal display of digits to denote time and other
information such as date, alarm, stopwatch and so on. But, the latest additions
have metamorphosized the digital wristwatches into an overwhelmingly prodigious
appliance. Today, they come with the twin capacity of a mobile phone and an
internet-enabled PC. The Bluetooth embedded hands free wristwatches alone can
hook you up with the rest of world via the wireless technology. You can store
mass of information, check your mails, browse as well as download your favorite
music and even can talk over them. Some of these digital watches can dock SIM
cards and with the most advanced cellular standard, GSM, these tech
masterpieces are full-fledged hubs of all the high-tech services that the IT
has to offer. Nevertheless, none of them discard their classic role - they do
show time and date!
Wristwatches are great fashion accessories
in vogue. Rather than mere timekeeping, luxurious wristwatches are adored much
like precious gems and jewels today and some timepieces with exquisite artistic
design and posh ingredients command even more value than pricy jewelry items.
Fashionable wristwatches these days are something to go crazy about and worth
spending bulk of bucks. Alongside the elegance and sophistication some of the
high-end wristwatches come with a range of ingenious capacities. They can
monitor your pulse, screen time events to hundredths of a second and can
pinpoint your GPS co-ordinates.
There are some other wristwatches having
their own elite genre with some superb sonata of alarms. The exterior of some
the delicately beautiful timepieces are made of glass, costly stones, manmade
sapphire etc and these are some masterworks never failing to enamor you. The
diversity and range of these masterpieces are becoming greater day by day and
both men and women are having greater scope to choose the piece that fits
his/her needs, style and personality best. Moreover, some wristwatches embody
the spirit of an era or mark some milestones of the manufacturer and these
watches are revered as classic. Classic wristwatches keep hold of their esteem
alone by the spirit they symbolize and people look up to them as antiques to be
treasured rather as timekeepers to be used casually. Some of the big brands
some of whose models have gained classic status are Vacheron Constantin, Patek
Philippe, Audemars Piguet, Cartier, Omega, Movado, IWC, Hamilton, Elgin,
Longines and so on.
From mere time-telling gizmos wristwatches
have evolved into an outstanding fusion of fashion and technology. Perhaps,
wristwatches are the most ordinary and yet potentially the most extraordinary
device that would last till the dusk of civilization.
Tamjeed
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