If a watch is just for telling the time, then why does so much design time and effort go into making it into a piece of expensive jewelry? If this small, portable device is just a means of ensuring you eat breakfast, lunch and dinner on time and get to meetings on schedule, then why the gold and platinum? Why put diamonds of all cuts and colors or sapphires or rubies all over it? Of course, watches are more than a simple and efficient way of making sure you don’t miss the bus. The clunkier the chronograph, the more it says about us and our pocketbook. Whether it’s a classically designed and exquisitely-manufactured piece, a hip-hop ultra-trendy timepiece or retro style with a wistful look back at simpler, mechanical days, out wrist ornaments give away as much about our characters and tastes as our clothes do, if not more.

 

 

And if you thought watch designers spend most of their time coming up with extravagant watches mostly for the ladies, then you’ve got a surprise coming because men’s watches in recent years have changed out of all recognition. Aided by the willingness of high-profile male celebrities to get in touch with their feminine side, today’s (wealthier) men are not afraid to sport a watch with a delicate sprinkling of diamonds. But fear not, today’s men have not gone soft: for the rough and rugged there are watches with sports-inspired materials such as silicone, rubber and titanium, and even camouflage straps for guys who want to make believe their day job involves running miles across mountain peaks in pursuit of terrorists and other enemies of the state as they make the world a safer place.

 

But how did watches start out? Around 1500, Peter Henlein, a craftsman from Nuremberg created the first watch enclosing a timekeeping movement in a round portable case and adorned it with a dial and hours hand. The first watches and all their descendants up to the middle of the 16th century depended on a simple but ingenious invention. It was a spring that, as it gradually unwound, provided energy that moved the timepiece’s hands.

 

This device came to be known as the mainspring. The earliest watches were ornate devices that were expensive beyond the reach of most people and contributed more to their wearers’ social status than to their ability to arrive somewhere on time. The watches had no minute hands, since that would have been pointless on timepieces that could barely show the correct hour. They also needed to be wound with a key twice a day. People wore them around their necks or carried them in purses. Accuracy improved gradually through the 16th and first part of the 17th centuries. Then, around 1675, it made an enormous leap due to the second great invention in watch history, the balance or hair spring. This was a precise way of regulating the oscillations of the balance which made watches accurate to within an extraordinary five minutes a day. There would not be a comparable leap in watch accuracy until the first electronic watch, Bulova's Accutron which appeared in 1960.

 

Timekeeping improvements followed quickly during the century that followed. The first watches with a second hand appeared in the 1690s. The first watch with a second hand that could be stopped independently while the watch itself kept running appeared in 1776.

 

One of the biggest events of the era, though, was the tourbillon invented by Abraham-Louis Breguet and which compensates for the slight differences in timing a watch records when held in different positions. The tourbillon remains a much-coveted feature on expensive mechanical watches today. He also invented a watch that ran without winding for 60 hours. The perpetual calendar was another Breguet invention. It, like the tourbillon, is a sought-after feature on modern watches. Thanks to a shock proofing device Breguet developed, the timepieces made in his 100-man workshop were more durable and reliable than any previously made.

 

Breguet was the watchmaker to the ancien r?gime before the French Revolution and later to European and Russian royalty and U.S. presidents: George Washington owned a Breguet as did Czar Alexander I, and Marie Antoinette owned many while Napoleon and Josephine Bonaparte were keen customers.

 

As time moved on, technology improved and with the advent of better steel more precise gears and springs could be manufactured, thus helping the development of an accurate pocket watch.

 

To ensure the watch kept its accuracy over long periods, bearings were made from jewels (usually synthetic sapphires or rubies). By the 1850s, America was leading the race in mass volume watch production, and eventually Europe followed in its footsteps and also began mass production.

 

Gimme some sparkle

For customers with around $1 million going spare, then there is the Chopard Ashoka watch, a joint venture between diamond house William Goldberg and watch and jewelry brand Chopard featuring Goldberg’s exclusive Ashoka diamonds. There are six style at price points from $200,000 to $1 million.

 

For a more unusual look, there’s Chopard’s Happy Spirit watch made of 18 karat white gold and a black dial which gives a good contrast for the concentric circles of diamonds (a total of of 3.90 carats). And if you want to see nothing but diamonds when you look to check the time, then this David Yurman timepiece fits the bill.

 

Color by numbers

If it’s a splash of color that you are looking for, then as with other components and design features, watchmakers have created a vast range of timepieces aimed at attracting attention by boldly putting a range of colors into their watches. Altanus has created watches that are certainly not intended for shrinking violets: they seem to scream out their presence, as does Roger Dubuis’ FollowMe with numerals set in pink sapphire.

 

Keeping cool

If it’s a super cool metallic look, then it comes as no surprise that one of the chilliest looks comes from Danish firm Skagen and its Titanium watch made in natural look as well as black titanium.

 

Another sharp metallic look is the Roger Dubuis AcquaMare timepiece, while the Bertolucci Uomo presents a clean, cool look. Meanwhile, another watch with a clear and uncluttered look is the Ventura v-tec Delta digital watch.

 

I’d Recognise that face anywhere

Looking for something, how shall we say, unusual? There are many interesting watch faces on offer, inclu-ding the Roger Dubuis Goldensquare watches which at least have the advantage of ensuring that you will never make a mistake in telling the time. Meanwhile, the Bertoluccia Doppia with its generous, and apparently random, sprinkling of diamonds is an unforgettable face. Krieger has created a watch whose face may not be the most extraordinary you’ve ever seen. Although the diamonds around the face are a nice touch. What is unusual, however, is the strap which is made of mink. And from Flight Watch comes a timepiece that the company says “will be in flight-testing over the summer” and expects to be ready for production in the fall. Ever seen a watch with 10 hands? Welcome to the No 8 collection from Voila which also features, you may have noticed, an odd-shaped and colourful face.