The English word "clock" comes from
the French word "cloche" meaning bell. The Latin for
bell is glocio, the Saxon is clugga, the German is glocke and
the Chinese is  . |
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Updated
on 15 Jul 2013
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Year (B.C.)
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3500
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A sundial clock or a sun clock was first used
around this time. |
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1400
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Water clocks were invented in Egypt. |
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Year (A.D.)
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Two Chinese Men ( )
invented the "Water Power Armillary Sphere" ( )
with the function of telling time.
Actually, It is like an small observatory and "Striking
clock". It will tell the time everyQuarter (Drum) and
every Shi Chen (Bell) automatically --- one day was divided
into 12 Shi Chen or 100 Quarters in the Chinese culture.
It is categorized as the first mechanical clock in the world
because it has a part which is similar to an escapement.
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1086
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A Chinese Man ( )
invented the "Water Power Celestial Globe" ( )
which has all the functions of the "Water Power Armillary
Sphere" and can display the current positions of
the planets. |
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1335
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French, Pierre Le Roy
invented the first escapement. He also discovered "Pierre
Le Roy's rule", whereby any balance
spring has a certain length that makes it isochronous. |
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1364
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Italian, Dondi built
a clock with a planetarium for the palace in his native town
of Padua in Italy. |
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1490
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German, Peter Hele
invented the first mainspring. |
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1504
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German, Peter Hele
invented the first portable timepiece. |
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1581
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Italian, Galileo,
Astronomer and Physicist, discovered the properties of the pendulum. |
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1587
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Watchmaking industry commenced in Geneva. |
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1657
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Dutch, Huygens, a
Physicist, made the first pendulum controlled clock. |
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1675
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Dutch, Huygens invented
a flat balance spring for the balance
in a watch. |
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1704
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Peter and Jacob
Debaufre, along with Nicolas Facio,
are the first to use rubies in watch movements. |
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1735
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| John Harrison
completed the first Marine Timekeeper H1 |
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1770
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Abranham-Louis Perrelet invented the pedometer
winding system. |
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1780s
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Abranham-Louis Breguet was making perpétuels,
with 2 mainsprings wound by an oscillating platinum winding
weight. |
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1787
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Levi Hutchins invented
the first mechanical alarm clock which could ring only at 4
am. |
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1801
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Abraham Louis Breguet
patented the Tourbillon. |
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1838
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Louis Audemars invents
stem winding and setting mechanism. |
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1868
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Patek Philippe made
the 1st wrist watch. |
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1871
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Aaros Dennison of
the International Watch Company ( IWC ) invented the waterproof
watchcase. |
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1872
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John Burge designed
the Gothic time lock. |
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1876
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Seth E Thomas patented
the mechanical wind-up alarm clock that could be set for any
time. |
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1888
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Cartier produced a lady's wrist watch with diamond
and gold bracelet. |
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1902
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Omega's 1st wrist watch |
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1910
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Longines began wrist watch production. |
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1914
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Eterna made the 1st alarm wrist watch. |
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1920
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Quartz crystal clocks
were invented. |
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1923
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John Harwood invented
the first Automatic wrist
watch. Patent no. 218,487
Rotating bezel to adjust time or perform hand-winding
15 jewels movement
The watch was produced in 1929.
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1925
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Patek Philippe produced the 1st perpetual
calendar wrist watch. |
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1927
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1st water resistant Rolex Oyster |
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1930
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Tissot developed the 1st anti-magnetic
wrist watch. |
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1949
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NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology)
built the first atomic clock, which
was based on ammonia (NH3). |
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1969
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Omega Speedmaster landed on the moon. |
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1970
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Hamilton releases the "Pulsar", the
first electronic digital watch with L.E.D. . |
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1972
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Longines and Seiko introduce a new type of digital
display with the L.C.D. . |
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1977
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The idea of Spring Drive was conceived in 1977
by an engineer at SEIKO EPSON's Suwa plant in Japan. |
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1989
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IWC assembled the Ingeneur which was able to withstand
a huge magnetic field of 500,000 A/m. |
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1999
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NIST-F1, an atomic clock which is based on cesium
(Cs), works with the accuracy to about one second in 20 million
years. |
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2008
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Seiko Spackwalk - designed and built to accompany
the first private individual ( Richard Garriott ) to conduct
a spacewalk. |
2013 |
Omega introduced an Anti-magnetic Co-axial Seamaster wrist watch which can withstand >15,000 Gauss |
2017 |
Zenith's Defy Lab - New and Disruptive monolithic silicon oscillator replacing classic swiss anchor, hairspring and balance wheel. |
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I will add more critical information as I find it; however,
you can search it by yourself. Enjoy !
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