My name is John Langhorn and I am a watch nut.

I fell in love with those wrist huggers before I was even in pre-school. I began my collection shortly afterwards, thanks to parents and uncles. Since then I have amassed a collection of hundreds. Some valuable, some only valuable to me. I am always on the hunt for more to add to my growing collection of time pieces.

Daily I am scouring the net looking for deals on the hottest and best watches know to man or woman. With that I decided to put together a collection of those deals from around the internet-world for you, the watch connoisseur like myself.

I hope you enjoy the site. If you have any suggestions or comments please drop me a line or two. I will respond.

Your friend in time

John

A short Video on Ebel which has grown on me over time

Measurement of time was one of the needs of human beings. The ice-age hunters of Europe made marks on sticks and bones to count the days between the phases of the moon. In the more organized societies more precise time measurement was needed for religious purposes and social occasions. The Egyptians were the first to divide the day into hours as we do now. The obelisks, slender, pointing and four sided pillar like structures were built for this purpose. The moving shadows of these pillars helped the people to know time. The sun dial that came later was only an evolution of the ancient Egyptian obelisk. This could be carried from place to place and was perhaps the first portable devise for measuring time.

The making of the water clock was another development as time could be measured during night also. The water clocks gave way to the candle clocks which were wax candles with lines on them to mark the hour. In the fourteenth century large weight driven clocks appeared in many cities on the towers at city centre. Sandglasses were another devise that was used to measure time. The fifteenth century saw the birth of spring driven clocks and then pendulum clocks. The modern watches have evolved from these.

In the infancy of watch making they were very expensive and only the kings, queens and royalty generally speaking owned personal watches to measure time. But soon technology made watches available to all, especially with the invention of the quartz movement. When any thing is hand crafted it becomes art, so many ancient companies continued to produce hand crafted watches that are fabulously costly. The difference between a hand crafted watch and a mass produced watch is the same as that of a photograph and a painting. So the traditional watch makers started selling the hand crafted watches for the rich at hyped prices. So some watches like Vacheron Constantin, Omega, Rolex, Patek Philippe, Blancpain, Bulgari and many others became ultimate symbols of luxury.Manufacturers now present the near perfect clones of these handcrafted watches to the public at the fraction of the price of the original.

More: http://www.articlesbase.com/shopping-articles/the-development-history-of-watches-3323096.html

Before 1550 when screws were still not an option, the watch’s movement was made from steel or any dense materials that was secured together with shafts or wedges. Watches during this time have to be manually wind twice a day to keep it working. Later on, the watch’s shape continue to evolved with time from cylindrical box shape to a rounded form, which is called the Nuremberg eggs. Several trendy shapes of watches became popular later that century like shapes of stars, books, fruits, animals, flowers, death images, insects and Christian symbols. Early timepieces did not gain its popularity because of its ability to tell time as they were made with a very poor foundation, inaccurate mechanism and unusual designs, but instead they were more considered a trendy novelties or fashion jewelries due to its hip designs and cool styles.

During the 17th century, a new style of watch had drawn the attention of most men. They were no longer worn as pendants, but instead as pocket watches. However, women were still attached to the old style. This new style came with a round and flat shape to fit inside everybody’s pocket and the cover had evolved into glass cover for the face replacing the brass. However, its mainspring was not constant, which provides inaccurate mechanism as the watch continues to wind down.

In 1675, a balance spring was the new addition to the balance wheel that has made a great improvement on the watch’s accuracy with its capability to naturally beat any occurrence of disturbances.

Read more: http://www.articlesbase.com/gadgets-and-gizmos-articles/history-of-watch-4366370.html
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