Editing Watch (section)

== History ==
{{Main|History of watches}}
{{See also|History of timekeeping devices}}

[[File:German - Spherical Table Watch (Melanchthon's Watch) - Walters 5817 - View C.jpg|thumb|A pomander watch from 1530, which once belonged to [[Philip Melanchthon]] and is now in the [[Walters Art Museum]], [[Baltimore]]]]

=== Origins ===
Watches evolved from portable [[Mainspring|spring-driven]] clocks, which first appeared in 15th-century Europe.{{cn|date=March 2024}} The first timepieces to be worn, made in the 16th century beginning in the German cities of [[Nuremberg]] and [[Augsburg]], were transitional in size between clocks and watches.<ref>{{cite book|last=Milham|first=Willis I.|title=Time and Timekeepers|year=1945|publisher=MacMillan|location=New York|pages=133–137|isbn=0-7808-0008-7}}</ref>   [[Nuremberg]] clockmaker [[Peter Henlein]] (or Henle or Hele) (1485–1542) is often credited as the inventor of the watch.<ref name="Carlisle">{{citation
  | last = Carlisle
  | first = Rodney P.
  | title = Scientific American Inventions and Discoveries
  | publisher = John Wiley & Sons
  | year = 2004
  | location = USA
  | pages = [https://archive.org/details/scientificameric0000carl/page/143 143]
  | url = https://archive.org/details/scientificameric0000carl
  | url-access = registration
  | quote = watch clock henlein.
  | isbn = 0471244104}}</ref><ref name="Usher">{{Cite book
| last=Usher
| first=Abbot Payson
| title=A History of Mechanical Inventions
| year=1988
| publisher=Courier Dover
| pages=305
| isbn=0-486-25593-X
| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xuDDqqa8FlwC&pg=PA305
| access-date=19 December 2022
| archive-date=3 July 2023
| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230703112708/https://books.google.com/books?id=xuDDqqa8FlwC&pg=PA305
| url-status=live
}}</ref> However, other German clockmakers were creating miniature timepieces during this period, and there is no evidence Henlein was the first.<ref name="Usher" /><ref name="Rossum">{{cite book|last=Dohrn-van Rossum|first=Gerhard|title=History of the Hour: Clocks and Modern Temporal Orders|publisher=Univ. of Chicago Press|year=1997|pages=121|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=53K32RiEigMC&pg=PA121|isbn=0-226-15510-2|access-date=23 January 2023|archive-date=3 July 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230703113720/https://books.google.com/books?id=53K32RiEigMC&pg=PA121|url-status=live}}</ref>

Watches were not widely worn in pockets until the 17th century. One account suggests that the word "watch" came from the [[Old English]] word ''woecce'' – which meant "watchman" – because town [[Watchman (law enforcement)|watchmen]] used the technology to keep track of their shifts at work.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|title= Watch|encyclopedia= The New Encyclopædia Britannica, 15th Edition|volume= 4|pages= 746–747|publisher= Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.|year= 1983|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=7iZqYfRWH_0C&q=watchmen+watch+clock+henlein|isbn= 0-85229-400-X|access-date= 3 June 2012}}</ref> Another says that the term came from 17th-century sailors, who used the new mechanisms to time the length of their shipboard [[Watch system|''watches'']] (duty shifts).<ref name="Haven">{{cite book|last= Haven|first= Kendall F.|title= 100 Greatest Science Inventions of All Time|publisher= Libraries Unlimited|year= 2006|pages= 65|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=0gBwjLTUzEMC&q=sailor+watch+clock+henlein&pg=PA65|isbn= 1-59158-264-4|access-date= 29 October 2020|archive-date= 3 July 2023|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20230703114257/https://books.google.com/books?id=0gBwjLTUzEMC&q=sailor+watch+clock+henlein&pg=PA65|url-status= live}}</ref>

=== Development ===
A rise in accuracy occurred in 1657 with the addition of the [[balance spring]] to the balance wheel, an invention disputed both at the time and ever since between [[Robert Hooke]] and [[Christiaan Huygens]]. This innovation significantly improved the accuracy of watches, reducing errors from several hours a day<ref>Milham 1945, p.226</ref> to approximately 10 minutes per day,<ref name="NIST">{{cite web|year= 2004|title= A Revolution in Timekeeping|work= A Walk Through Time|publisher= [[National Institute of Standards and Technology]]|url= https://www.nist.gov/pml/time-and-frequency-division/popular-links/walk-through-time/walk-through-time-revolution|access-date= 13 October 2022|archive-date= 13 October 2022|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20221013184811/https://www.nist.gov/pml/time-and-frequency-division/popular-links/walk-through-time/walk-through-time-revolution|url-status= live}}</ref> which led to the introduction of the [[Clock face|minute hand]] on watch faces in Britain around 1680 and in France by 1700.<ref>{{Cite book|url= http://atena.beic.it/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=13458392&search_terms=DTL59|title= Acta Eruditorum|year= 1737|location= Leipzig|pages= 123|access-date= 5 June 2018|archive-date= 3 July 2023|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20230703114222/http://atena.beic.it/view/action/nmets.do?DOCCHOICE=13458392.xml&dvs=1688384463351~191&locale=en_US&search_terms=DTL59&show_metadata=true&adjacency=&VIEWER_URL=/view/action/nmets.do?&DELIVERY_RULE_ID=7&divType=|url-status= live}}</ref>

The increased accuracy of the balance wheel focused attention on errors caused by other parts of the [[movement (clockwork)|movement]], igniting a two-century wave of watchmaking innovation. The first thing to be improved was the [[escapement]]. The verge escapement was replaced in quality watches by the [[cylinder escapement]], invented by [[Thomas Tompion]] in 1695 and further developed by [[George Graham (clockmaker)|George Graham]] in the 1720s. Improvements in manufacturing – such as the tooth-cutting machine devised by [[Robert Hooke]] – allowed some increase in the volume of watch production, although finishing and assembling was still done by hand until well into the 19th century.
[[File:Blancpain_logo.svg|right|thumb|Founded in 1735, [[Blancpain]] is the oldest registered watch brand in the world.]]
A major cause of error in balance-wheel timepieces, caused by changes in [[Elasticity (physics)|elasticity]] of the [[balance spring]] from temperature changes, was solved by the bimetallic [[Balance wheel|temperature-compensated balance wheel]] invented in 1765 by [[Pierre Le Roy]] and improved by [[Thomas Earnshaw]] (1749–1829). The [[lever escapement]], the single most important technological breakthrough, though invented by [[Thomas Mudge (horologist)|Thomas Mudge]] in 1754<ref name="The Tourbillon Chronicles">{{cite web |last1=Forster |first1=Jack |title=The Tourbillon Chronicles: Birth Of The Tourbillon |url=https://www.the1916company.com/blog/tourbillon-origins.html |website=www.the1916company.com |access-date=2 October 2023}}</ref> and improved by Josiah Emery in 1785,<ref name="Timeline of Clocks and Watches">{{cite web |title=Timeline of Clocks and Watches |url=http://www.historyofwatch.com/clock-history/clock-timeline/ |website=History of Watch |access-date=2 October 2023}}</ref> only gradually came into use from about 1800 onwards, chiefly in Britain.<ref name="Neha S. Bajpai">{{cite web |last1=Bajpai |first1=Neha S. |title=An introduction to British watchmaking |url=https://wristcheck.com/discover/watch-101/an-introduction-to-british-watchmaking |website=WristCheck |access-date=2 October 2023}}</ref>
[[File:Acta Eruditorum - II orologi, 1737 – BEIC 13458392.jpg|thumb|A watch drawn in ''[[Acta Eruditorum]]'', 1737]]
The British predominated in watch manufacture for much of the 17th and 18th centuries, but maintained a system of production that was geared towards high-quality products for the élite.<ref>{{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=cVUSauNST8EC&q=British+Watch+Company+mass+production|title= Manufacturing Time: Global Competition in the Watch Industry, 1795–2000|author= Glasmeier, Amy|year= 2000|publisher= Guilford Press|isbn= 9781572305892|access-date= 7 February 2013|archive-date= 3 July 2023|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20230703113711/https://books.google.com/books?id=cVUSauNST8EC&q=British+Watch+Company+mass+production|url-status= live}}</ref> The British Watch Company modernized clock manufacture with [[mass-production]] techniques and the application of duplicating tools and machinery in 1843. In the [[United States]],  [[Aaron Lufkin Dennison]] started a factory in 1851 in [[Massachusetts]] that used [[interchangeable parts]], and by 1861 a successful enterprise operated, incorporated as the [[Waltham Watch Company]].<ref name="Roe1916">{{citation | last = Roe | first = Joseph Wickham | title = English and American Tool Builders | publisher = Yale University Press | year = 1916 | location = New Haven, Connecticut | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=X-EJAAAAIAAJ | lccn = 16011753 | access-date = 12 November 2015 | archive-date = 3 July 2023 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230703113712/https://books.google.com/books?id=X-EJAAAAIAAJ | url-status = live }}. Reprinted by McGraw-Hill, New York and London, 1926 ({{LCCN|27024075}}); and by Lindsay Publications, Inc., Bradley, Illinois, ({{ISBN|978-0-917914-73-7}}).</ref>

=== Wristwatches ===
[[File:Wrist Watch WWI.jpg|thumb|upright|Early wristwatch by [[Waltham Watch Company|Waltham]] with a metal shrapnel guard over the crystal, worn by soldiers in World War I ([[German Clock Museum]])]]

[[File:Campaign Watch 1915.jpg|thumb|upright| [[Mappin & Webb]]'s campaign wristwatch, advertised as having been in production since 1898]]
The concept of the wristwatch goes back to the production of the very earliest watches in the 16th century. In 1571, [[Elizabeth I]] of England received a wristwatch, described as an "armed watch", from [[Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester|Robert Dudley]].<ref name="Bruton183" /> 17th century French mathematician [[Blaise Pascal]] is said to have worn a watch on his left-wrist.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Caws |first1=Mary Ann |title=Blaise Pascal: Miracles and Reason |date=2017 |publisher=Reaktion Books |page=147}}</ref> The oldest surviving wristwatch (then described as a "bracelet watch") is one made in 1806, and given to [[Joséphine de Beauharnais]].<ref name="Bruton183">{{cite book |last=Bruton |first=Eric |date=2000 |title=The History of Clocks & Watches |publisher=Little, Brown and Company |page=183 |isbn=0316853550}}</ref> From the beginning, wristwatches were almost exclusively worn by women – men used pocket watches up until the early 20th century.<ref name="Evolu">{{cite web |title=The Evolution of the Wristwatch |url= http://www.vintagewatchstraps.com/wristwatches.html |access-date=8 December 2013 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20131208200615/http://vintagewatchstraps.com/wristwatches.html |archive-date= 8 December 2013 |url-status= dead}}</ref> In 1810, the watch-maker [[Abraham-Louis Breguet]] made a wristwatch for the Queen of Naples.<ref>{{cite web |title=First wristwatch |publisher=Breguet |url=https://www.breguet.com/en/history/inventions/first-wristwatch |access-date=30 December 2020 |archive-date=24 November 2020 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20201124233618/https://www.breguet.com/en/history/inventions/first-wristwatch |url-status=live}}</ref> The first Swiss wristwatch was made in the year 1868 by the Swiss watch-maker [[Patek Philippe]] for Countess Koscowicz of Hungary.<ref>{{cite web |title=Company &#124; History |publisher=Patek Philippe |url=https://www.patek.com/en/company/history#1839-1877 |access-date=30 December 2020 |archive-date=28 July 2012 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20120728122613/http://www.patek.ch/contents/default/en/timeline.html#1839-1877 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Belcher |first1=David |title=Wrist Watches: From Battlefield to Fashion Accessory |website=[[The New York Times]] |date=23 October 2013 |url= https://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/23/fashion/wrist-watches-from-battlefield-to-fashion-accessory.html#:~:text=The%20first%20wristwatch%20was%20made,not%20so%20easy%20to%20pinpoint. |access-date=30 December 2020 |archive-date=23 October 2021 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20211023111346/https://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/23/fashion/wrist-watches-from-battlefield-to-fashion-accessory.html#:~:text=The%20first%20wristwatch%20was%20made,not%20so%20easy%20to%20pinpoint. |url-status=live}}</ref>

Wristwatches were first worn by military men towards the end of the 19th century, having increasingly recognized the importance of synchronizing maneuvers during war without potentially revealing plans to the enemy through signaling. The Garstin Company of [[London]] patented a "Watch Wristlet" design in 1893, but probably produced similar designs from the 1880s. Officers in the [[British Army]] began using wristwatches during colonial military campaigns in the 1880s, such as during the [[Third Anglo-Burmese War|Anglo-Burma War]] of 1885.<ref name="Evolu" /> During the [[First Boer War]] of 1880–1881, the importance of coordinating troop movements and synchronizing attacks against highly mobile Boer insurgents became paramount, and the use of wristwatches subsequently became widespread among the [[Officer (armed forces)|officer]] class. The company [[Mappin & Webb]] began production of their successful "campaign watch" for soldiers during the [[Battle of Omdurman|campaign in the Sudan in 1898]] and accelerated production for the [[Second Boer War]] of 1899–1902 a few years later.<ref name="Evolu" /> In continental Europe, [[Girard-Perregaux]] and other Swiss watchmakers began supplying German naval officers with wristwatches in about 1880.<ref name=Bruton183 />

Early models were essentially standard pocket-watches fitted to a leather strap, but by the early 20th century, manufacturers began producing purpose-built wristwatches. The Swiss company [[Dimier]] Frères & Cie patented a wristwatch design with the now standard wire lugs in 1903. In 1904, [[Louis Cartier]] produced a wristwatch to allow his friend [[Alberto Santos-Dumont]] to check flight performance in his airship while keeping both hands on the controls as this proved difficult with a pocket watch.<ref>{{cite web |url= https://www.interwatches.com/cartier-history |title=The History of Cartier |publisher=InterWatches |access-date=23 August 2016 |archive-date=26 August 2016 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20160826050741/https://www.interwatches.com/cartier-history |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>"Aviation Pioneer Scored A First in Watch-Wearing." ''[[The New York Times]]'', 25 October 1975. Retrieved: 21 July 2009.</ref><ref>''100 Designs/100 Years: A Celebration of the 20th Century'' (aka ''100 Designs/100 Years: Innovative Designs of the 20th Century'') (with Arlette Barré-Despond), Hove, UK: RotoVision, 1999 | {{ISBN|2-88046-442-0}}</ref> Cartier still markets a line of Santos-Dumont watches and sunglasses.<ref name="Cartier_sun">Cartier sunglasses. [http://www.cartier.com/show-me/accessories/t8200853-santos-dumont-rimmed-sunglasses#/show-me/accessories/t8200853-santos-dumont-rimmed-sunglasses "Cartier rimmed sunglasses" (English).] {{Webarchive |url= https://web.archive.org/web/20120806200550/http://www.cartier.com/show-me/accessories/t8200853-santos-dumont-rimmed-sunglasses#/show-me/accessories/t8200853-santos-dumont-rimmed-sunglasses |date=6 August 2012}} cartier.com. Retrieved: 9 December 2012.</ref>

[[File:Vacheron Constantin Patrimony gold watch.jpg|thumb|right|A [[Vacheron Constantin]] patrimony wristwatch]]
In 1905, [[Hans Wilsdorf]] moved to London, and set up his own business, Wilsdorf & Davis, with his brother-in-law Alfred Davis, providing quality timepieces at affordable prices; the company became [[Rolex]] in 1915.<ref>Rolex Jubilee Vade Mecum published by the Rolex Watch Company in 1946.</ref> Wilsdorf was an early convert to the wristwatch, and contracted the Swiss firm Aegler to produce a line of wristwatches.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.qualitytyme.net/pages/rolex_articles/history_of_wristwatch.html |title=The History and Evolution of the Wristwatch |first=John E. |last=Brozek |publisher=International Watch Magazine |access-date=4 March 2011 |archive-date=11 June 2010 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20100611233904/http://qualitytyme.net/pages/rolex_articles/history_of_wristwatch.html |url-status=live}}</ref>

The impact of the [[First World War]] of 1914–1918 dramatically shifted public perceptions on the propriety of the man's wristwatch and opened up a mass market in the postwar era.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Choi |first=David |title=WWI vets popularized the most important accessory in a gentleman's wardrobe |website=Business Insider |date=May 2016 |url=https://www.businessinsider.com/watches-after-wwi-the-male-accessory-2016-5 |access-date=2021-06-24 |archive-date=24 June 2021 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20210624210507/https://www.businessinsider.com/watches-after-wwi-the-male-accessory-2016-5 |url-status=live}}</ref> The [[creeping barrage]] artillery tactic, developed during the war, required precise synchronization between the artillery gunners and the infantry advancing behind the barrage. Service watches produced during the war were specially designed for the rigors of [[trench warfare]], with luminous dials and unbreakable glass. The UK [[War Office]] began issuing wristwatches to combatants from 1917.<ref>{{cite book |last=Hoffman |first=Paul |year=2004 |title=Wings of Madness: Alberto Santos-Dumont and the Invention of Flight |publisher=Hyperion Press |url-access=registration |url= https://archive.org/details/wingsofmadnessal0000hoff |isbn=0-7868-8571-8}}</ref> By the end of the war, almost all enlisted men wore a wristwatch (or [[Trench watch|wristlet]]), and after they were demobilized, the fashion soon caught on: the British [[British Horological Institute|''Horological Journal'']] wrote in 1917, that "the wristlet watch was little used by the sterner sex before the war, but now is seen on the wrist of nearly every man in uniform and of many men in civilian attire."<ref>{{Cite book |title=Ordnance Maintenance Wrist Watches, Pocket Watches, Stop Watches and Clocks |year=1945 |publisher=Read Books Ltd. |isbn=978-1-5287-6620-3 |access-date=9 September 2021 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=J2DxDwAAQBAJ&q=the+wristlet+watch+was+little+used+by+the+sterner+sex+before+the+war%2C+but+now+is+seen+on+the+wrist+of+nearly+every+man+in+uniform+and+of+many+men+in+civilian+attire&pg=PP4 |archive-date=3 July 2023 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20230703114726/https://books.google.com/books?id=J2DxDwAAQBAJ&q=the+wristlet+watch+was+little+used+by+the+sterner+sex+before+the+war%2C+but+now+is+seen+on+the+wrist+of+nearly+every+man+in+uniform+and+of+many+men+in+civilian+attire&pg=PP4 |url-status=live}}</ref> By 1930, the wristwatch vastly exceeded the pocket watch in market share by a decisive ratio of 50:1.{{fact|date=May 2025}}

==== Automatic watches ====
[[John Harwood (watchmaker)|John Harwood]] invented the first successful [[self-winding watch|self-winding]] system in 1923. In anticipation of Harwood's patent for self-winding mechanisms expiry in 1930, [[Glycine Watch SA|Glycine]] founder Eugène Meylan started development on a self-winding system as a separate module that could be used with almost any 8.75 ligne (19.74 millimeter) watch movement. Glycine incorporated this module into its watches in October 1930, and began mass-producing automatic watches.<ref name=":32">{{Cite web |last=Foskett |first=Stephen |date=2021-07-19 |title=Eugène Meylan, Glycine, and the Fight Over the First Automatic Watch |website=Grail Watch |url= https://grail-watch.com/2021/07/19/eugene-meylan-glycine-and-the-fight-over-the-first-automatic-watch/ |access-date=2022-08-15 |archive-date=1 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220701144634/https://grail-watch.com/2021/07/19/eugene-meylan-glycine-and-the-fight-over-the-first-automatic-watch/ |url-status=live}}</ref>

==== Electric watches ====
The [[Elgin National Watch Company]] and the [[Hamilton Watch Company]] pioneered the first [[electric watch]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Hamilton Electric: the Race to Create the World's First Battery-Powered Watch |website=wornandwound.com |date=31 May 2018 |url= https://wornandwound.com/hamilton-electric-the-race-to-create-the-worlds-first-battery-powered-watch/ |access-date=1 June 2022 |archive-date=2 July 2022 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20220702135356/https://wornandwound.com/hamilton-electric-the-race-to-create-the-worlds-first-battery-powered-watch/ |url-status=live}}</ref> The first electric movements used a battery as a power source to oscillate the balance wheel. During the 1950s, Elgin developed the model 725, while Hamilton released two models: the first, the Hamilton 500, released on 3 January 1957, was produced into 1959. This model had problems with the contact wires misaligning, and the watches returned to Hamilton for alignment. The Hamilton 505, an improvement on the 500, proved more reliable: the contact wires were removed and a non-adjustable contact on the balance assembly delivered the power to the balance wheel. Similar designs from many other watch companies followed. Another type of electric watch was developed by the [[Bulova]] company that used a tuning-fork resonator instead of a traditional balance wheel to increase timekeeping accuracy, moving from a typical 2.5–4&nbsp;Hz with a traditional balance wheel to 360&nbsp;Hz with the tuning-fork design.

====Quartz watches====
The commercial introduction of the [[quartz watch]] in 1969 in the form of the Seiko [[Astron (wristwatch)|Astron 35SQ]], and in 1970 in the form of the Omega [[Omega Electroquartz|Beta 21]] was a revolutionary improvement in watch technology. In place of a balance wheel, which oscillated at perhaps 5 or 6 beats per second, these devices used a [[crystal oscillator|quartz-crystal]] [[resonator]], which vibrated at 8,192&nbsp;Hz, driven by a battery-powered [[Electronic oscillator|oscillator circuit]].<ref>{{cite web |last=Frei |first=Armin H. |title=First-Hand: The First Quartz Wrist Watch |publisher=Engineering and Technology History Wiki (ETHW) |date=6 February 2020 |url= https://ethw.org/First-Hand:The_First_Quartz_Wrist_Watch |access-date=5 December 2021 |archive-date=5 December 2021 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20211205074716/https://ethw.org/First-Hand:The_First_Quartz_Wrist_Watch |url-status=live}}</ref> Most quartz-watch oscillators now operate at 32,768&nbsp;Hz, though quartz movements have been designed with frequencies as high as 262&nbsp;kHz. Since the 1980s, more quartz watches than mechanical ones have been marketed.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mondschein |first=Kenneth C. |title=On Time: A History of Western Timekeeping |pages=166 |publisher=[[Johns Hopkins University Press]] |date=2020-09-15 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=Hgb5DwAAQBAJ&dq=%221980s%22,+more+%22quartz+watches%22+than+mechanical+ones+have+been+marketed&pg=PA166 |isbn=978-1-4214-3827-6}}</ref>

==== Smart watches ====
The [[Timex Datalink|Timex Datalink wristwatch]] was introduced in 1994.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Farion |first=Christine |title=The Ultimate Guide to Informed Wearable Technology: A hands-on approach for creating wearables from prototype to purpose using Arduino systems |pages=6 |date=2022-10-31 |publisher=Packt Publishing Ltd |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=qnqWEAAAQBAJ&dq=The+Timex+Datalink+wristwatch+,+was+introduced+in+1994&pg=PA6 |isbn=978-1-80324-447-1}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=Research & Development |date=1995-07-01 |publisher=Technical Publishing Company |location=Chicago |pages=24 |volume=37 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=lZ8oAQAAMAAJ&q=The+Timex+Datalink+wristwatch+,+was+introduced+in+1994 |format=Information not visible in web-based source.}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Timex and Microsoft Team Up on a Watch |work=BUSINESS TECHNOLOGY |agency=Reuters |publisher=The New York Times |page=5 |date=1994-06-22 |url= https://www.nytimes.com/1994/06/22/business/business-technology-timex-and-microsoft-team-up-on-a-watch.html |accessdate=2024-10-01}}</ref> The early Timex Datalink Smartwatches realized a wireless data transfer mode to receive data from a PC. Since then, many companies have released their own iterations of a smartwatch, such as the [[Apple Watch]], [[Samsung Galaxy Watch]], and [[Huawei Watch]].

==== Hybrid watches ====
A hybrid smartwatch is a fusion between a regular mechanical watch and a smartwatch.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Advances in Electronics and Electron Physics |date=1980-09-01 |publisher=Academic Press |pages=257 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rOiBwXJvkVwC&dq=%22Hybrid+watches%22&pg=PA257 |isbn=978-0-08-057716-6}}</ref>