Looking back in time..
Pocket watches have a long and fascinating history that traces their development for use by the upper classes to their eventual status as a compulsory tool for the working classes over the period of a few centuries.
Pocket watches were first referred to in correspondence between craftsmen and members of the upper class in the fifteenth century, and it is believed that an early prototype of the pocket watch was worn in this era around the neck, rather than on a pocket watch chain, like an Albert T Bar chain.
With the introduction of the wrist-watch in the years leading up to World War I, and then the development of the quartz mechanism that made mechanic winding watches largely obsolete, pocket watches were relegated to the back seat in the watch world.
The watchmaking industry took a beating during the early 1960's when the electronic watch age emerged; which was shortly followed by the quartz watch a decade later. Consumers began to abandon their old mechanicals for the new technology in keeping time. With the maturing of the quartz watch and dramatic reductions in the cost of producing these watch movements, the vast majority of quartz watches became a throw away commodity, it became almost a break even proposition as whether to service the existing watch or to buy a new quartz watch.
Now pocket watches are on the come back, along with the many pocket watch accessories like pocket watch stands.
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