Watches

24 Watches I love watches. I like digital watches, but I prefer the old watches with their slow-moving hands and ticking sounds. The mechanical watches that are full of gears, springs, and wheels are my favourite. They're incredible inventions! There is so much history behind watches. Many years ago, ships had problems navigating becausethey did not have a reliable clock on board. In 1500 AD, a man invented a clock that would work on board a ship. It used a piece of coiled up metal to keep it working. The first clock spring! Soon, pocket watches became available, but they were expensive. Owning a pocket watch meant you were rich, and probably very important. Nearly everyone wanted one. But by the 1800s, owning a pocket watch had become fairly common.

In 1800, a Frenchman invented something very special. It was called the tourbillon. This is French for “ tornado" . It's a device that eliminates timekeeping errors caused by slight variations in gravity when a watch changes position during use. It consists of a cage of gears that circle around inside the watch movement every minute. This ensures that the force of gravity on the watch spring is equal at all times. Today, tourbillon watches are still produced. In fact, they are the most expensive watches you can buy. Thecheapest of these costs more than a Mercedes car! These watches are masterpieces. They have up to 400 moving parts inside and can take up to a year to build. Sometimes, people don't realize how amazing these mechanical watches are. Sure, you can buy a digital watch for almost nothing, and it will give you a very accurate time. But, today's watches are the result of hundreds of years of refinement and invention. Watches keep us in touch with the world because the accurate measurement of time keeps everything running in order. lmagine if suddenly every watch and clock on Earth stopped. What would we do? But fortunately, we don't have to worry about that now. We have our trusted watches. Time to go!