The World's Best Watches -- Part 2

If you haven't come across the wristwatch of your dreams just yet, you must not be looking hard enough. Or perhaps you're looking too hard, as the volume of watches available at retail is nothing short of daunting. Low-end quartz-movement brands such as Fossil introduce hundreds of models each year. Meanwhile, makers of fine watches typically maintain multiple collections--such as sports watches, dress watches and Grand Complications--multiple models within those collections--such as chronographs, pilot watches and day & dates--as well as numerous versions of each model. Want it in stainless steel with a black dial? Rose gold with a white dial? A platinum pavé speckled with diamonds? Chances are it's in the collection--and let's not even get started on all the possible bracelet and strap combinations. 

Add to all of this the many fashion designers, sports franchises, entertainment conglomerates and consumer goods manufacturers that routinely pump out watches for sale or giveaway. From the plastic freebie your kid digs out of a cereal box, to stylish line extensions fromTommy Hilfiger (nyse: TOM - news - people ) or Calvin Klein, to calculated collectibles such as Casio's limited-edition "G-Shock"Jeremy Shockey signature watch promoting the New York Giants' hobbled tight end, there are almost too many watches to contemplate. 

"It's relatively easy to get started in the watch business," notes Strandberg. "Simply contract a movement from an established watchmaker and put your name on it. You might not be selling timeless creations, but if you catch a trend they'll sell." 

Though clocks have been around since the 13th century, the history of the wristwatch is barely 13 decades old. Queen Elizabeth I is known to have received a gift of a small timepiece fastened to a bracelet as far back as 1571, yet it wasn't until 1880 that true wristwatches were produced in any quantity, notably for the German navy by the Swiss firmGirard-Perregaux. Watches gradually caught on with military types during the Boer War (1899-1902) and with pioneering pilots soon after that. Still, if not for their popularity as jewelry for women, wristwatches might never have survived the turn of the 20th century. As noted inWristwatches, a collectors' guideby Gisbert Brunner and Christian Pfeiffer-Belli: "[Men's] tendency to accept the known and reject the new can be seen in retrospect as a hindrance for the earlier acceptance of the wristwatch." 

Once wristwatches did catch on, however, there seemed no stopping them or their technological advances. The first chronographs appeared in 1909, the first date watches in 1912, and waterproof watches surfaced in 1915, encouraged by the military necessities of World War I. Indeed, the Allied armored combat vehicles that defended France during the Great War inspired Louis Cartier's famous Tank Watch, the first examples of which were presented to American Gen. John J. Pershing.Rolex patented its first "Oyster" watch with a waterproof case and screw-in crown in 1926, and garnered exceptional publicity the following year when a long-distance swimmer wore one, without damage, while stroking across the English Channel. 

Self-winding watches began relieving the burden of winding in 1932, and the world's first electric watch--a Hamilton Ventura--became an instant hit in 1957. When Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon in 1969 with an Omega Speedmaster-Chronograph on his wrist, there were some 1,600 watchmakers in Switzerland, the Detroit of the industry. Yet time stopped shortly thereafter with the appearance of cheap quartz technology. In the upheaval that followed throughout the 1970s, many classic old-line watchmakers went bankrupt and shut down, while the Swiss government rushed in to save what it could. In the end, employment in the Swiss watch industry dropped from 90,000 in 1970 to just over 30,000 in 1984. These days there are around 650 watchmakers in Switzerland, with some 40,000 employees between them. 

Source: Forbes.com -- The World's Best Watches

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