The Timeless Beauty of a Watch
Watches have been a timeless classic piece of jewelry for hundreds of years. From the distinction of the treasured pocket watches passed on for generations, to today’s highly diverse timepieces, high quality watches truly are a gift that can last generations.
While traditional classic watches were known for their class and fine jewelry appearance as well as their time keeping ability, the modern watch has become so many things. Modern watches like the ones at: https://www.watchshopping.com/panerai/ can carry a wide variety of features including the month, date and year which became popular in the late 70’s. However, they can also have such features as: a compass, stop watch, moon phases, differing time zones and so much more.
History of Watches
The original watch which was carried as a piece of jewelry that defined the stature of the person wearing it, was known as the pocket watch and was predominantly used by men from the 14th century until the early 20th century. The wristwatch became the new craze in time pieces and became popular for both men and women from the mid-20th century.
There have been many significant changes in watches over the centuries. Many of these changes have been in the last 100 years as technology has advanced. Aside from watches becoming a wrist worn piece of jewelry in the early 20th century, how they are powered has changed a great deal as well. Until the 1960’s, watches were a classic mechanical driven clockwork device. They were driven by winding a spring which kept time with an oscillating balance wheel within the watch.
The Emergence of Quartz Watches
In the 1960’s, the first series of quartz watches emerged. These watches were powered by a battery cell. The continuation of the time keeping device within the watch was maintained by the vibration of a quartz crystal. Not long after this, the digital watch emerged which was powered by a battery. The digital watch changed the classic 12-hour timepiece face of a watch to a simple numeric time display.
The Diverse Watches of Today
Today’s watches can keep time in any of these three ways and are advanced enough that they can be used as so much more than a watch. The “Smart Watch”, which is a fairly new device offers some minor cell phone app benefits. Additionally, many have the capacity to advise the wearer of their heart rate and pulse along with blood pressure and other health and exercise monitoring.
Tactical watches are another more recent advancement in watches. They are designed to be rugged and durable. They also often operate on military time, are scratch resistant, waterproof, and often have compass, stop watch and alarm features as well as the traditional time keeping feature. Another great watch addition has been the Altimeter watch. These watches can tell altitude, barometric pressure, temperature, give compass stats, offer GPS guidance and TOPO mapping.
Because today’s watches are so diverse in what they offer, they have increasingly become a great gift for people of all ages. Giving a watch as a gift is the perfect way to show you care.
Their diverse designs make them great for athletes and elites, the health conscious and the tech guru as well as people who just want a good reliable timepiece. During the holidays as well as birthdays and anniversaries, watches are widely known to be one of the best gifts to give and receive.
