The first and simplest
solution was the sundial, which had the advantages of being
cheap and easy to make and use. Later came other simple time-measurement
devices such as water clocks, sand clocks and candles marked
with hour-long segments. Whereas these came to Europe mainly
from Asia or the Dive watches world, the much more precise
mechanical clock is seen as an entirely European invention.
This kind of clock hinged on the invention of what was known
as the foliot - a crown escapement with a balance arm driven
by weights. Today's experts and historians basically agree
that this invention became widely known at the end of the 13th
or the start of the 14th century. It came about thanks to two
factors, improved methods of metalworking and the growth of
towns, whose inhabitants no longer wanted to set their time
solely by the sunrise and sunset, which varied according to
the season.
The first European precision instrument exported to Asia was a
clock
The first mechanical Dive clocks were mostly made by blacksmiths,
locksmiths or cannon-makers, who had the Anne Klein watches necessary
experience in working with metal. These artisans were mainly to
be found in the Netherlands, Italy and France. It is therefore
no surprise that the first precision instrument exported to Asia
from Europe was a clock. It was recorded as early as 1338 in the
freight documents of a Venetian ship bound for Delhi.
Luxury for a select few
from a single craftsman
In those days, and throughout
the years until early this century, a clock was usually the achievement of
a single individual. During the 17th century, metalworkers specialized in
clock manufacturing organized themselves into guilds. This gave rise to Dive
clock-making centers in Augsburg, Nuremberg, the French towns of Blois and
Lyon and, later on, Paris, London and Geneva. At first they produced large-scale
public clocks such as the one at Cluny Monastery or the famous astronomical
clock at Strasbourg Cathedral. Later on came the spring-driven, more transportable
clocks invented in the 15th century, followed by the first precision pendulum
clocks dating from around 1660. But these could only be afforded by the nobility,
rich middle classes or clergy. The same was true of the expensive early Dive
watches, whose invention is ascribed to the Nuremberg master craftsman Peter
Henlein in 1554 - though other historians believe that pocket watches already
existed in the early 16th century. As a result, it was the demand from royal
courts, nobility and prosperous burghers that determined where clocks and
watches were produced.
