怀表收藏基础知识This guide is intended to give a brief outline of the history of the pocket watch, from its beginnings in the 16th century, up until the early part of the 20th century. It covers the technical development and gives an idea of the different types of watch that might be collected. At the end is a list of terms used for describing pocket watches.Collecting watches has been a popular pastime for as long as watches have been around. The first watches were produced in Nuremberg in the 16th century and could hardly be described as pocket watches (they were known as Nuremberg eggs). They would perhaps better be described as portable clocks. These slowly developed into what we would now call a pocket watch, over the next hundred or so years. Early Watches used the verge escapement, they didnt have a balance (hair) spring to regulate the balance and only an hour hand as they were not accurate enough to warrant a minute hand.The prospect of a reasonably accurate pocket watch became a reality with the introduction of the balance spring in the 1670s. This in turn lead to the use of a minute hand, as now watches could keep time within 5 to 10 minutes per day! They still required either a pendulum clock or sundial to set them by.Before this date, other additions had been made to the basic time tell properties of the watch, these included alarms, repeating work (were the watch could be made to strike the hours by pressing a lever) and beautifully engraved and decorated cases. The latter were designed to draw attention to what were usual very expensive purchases.Watch casesWatches dating from the 17th and 18th centuries were often housed in pair or even triple cases. This was partly to protect the watch and partly to make it look more important. The outer case was usually very heavily decorated or covered in tortoise shell or shagreen (sharks skin). These cases were usually made of gold, silver or gilt brass (sometimes called mercurial gilding).As the 18th century drew to a close, the cases became simpler with geometric designs (engine turning) applied or just plain. Gold, silver and gilt cases were still the most common, but in the 19th century a few simple watches can sometimes be found housed in blue steel or nickel cases.Towards the end of the 19th century and into the 20th century, more and more mass produced watches were made, these were often housed in plain silver, gold plated (sometimes called rolled gold or filled gold), steel, nickel and chrome plated ones.The watch movementAs mention above, the first watches used the verge escapement to regulate the rate at which the watch ran. This type of movement was first used in clocks and probably dates from the 13th century. It remained the popular chose for watches up until the mid 19th century. It was fairly easy to make and was reliable, if not that accurate.Sometime in the early 18th century, due to pressure from ships that needed to know the time with great accuracy in order to determine there position at sea (longitude), more accurate watches began to be development. This in turn lead to a number of different watch escapements being invented. These included the detected lever, cylinder, duplex, chronometer and many more whose evolution came to a dead end. The vast majority of watches that come up for sale today are likely to be lever, cylinder or verge. Other types of movement will occasionally be offered, but will usually command a high price due to there rarity. With luck, you may be able to spot an unusual watch, even though it isnt described as such, in which case you may end up with a bargain.Watch dialsFrom the earliest days of the pocket watch, they have always had some sort of dial to indicate the hours and later minutes and seconds. In the early days, these were made of similar materials to the case i.e. gold, silver or guilt brass. Later during the 17th century enamel dials became increasingly popular. These were made by fusing ground glass coloured with pigments, onto a copper disc, these are sometimes incorrectly referred to as porcelain dials, but are in fact enamel. In the early days, they were not usually white, but were either cream or with a blue tinge. Up until the latter part of the 18th century, they tended to be convex, but by the beginning of the 19th century, they were becoming flat and their colour was now more commonly white. Also with the increasing accuracy of watches at the end of the 18th century, dials started to be made with a subsidiary seconds dial; these often became sunken towards the middle of the 19th century.CollectingIt is probably fair to say that, with one or two exceptions, if you are buying watches on the open market, you are unlikely to come across or be able to afford watches that predate the early 18th century. Watches before this period are likely to only be sold in specialist auctions and will command very high prices.It i