Electrifying the Wristwatch

The electrification of the watch led to massive upheaval in the watch industry as mechanical chronometers built by Old World masters developed into electromechanical devices mass produced in Asia. In nearly 600 images and in-depth text, this book retraces the often circuitous paths that led from the electromagnetic pendulum clock to the modern quartz wristwatch. This well-researched volume focuses on the period between 1950 and 1985, but it also covers the long process of electrifying big clocks, which goes back to Alexander Bain’s 1841 patent for an electrically operated magnetic pendulum clock. But the crowning achievement of this process was the further miniaturization of the timepiece into the modern quartz wristwatch.