Everyday IP: From watches to wearables

Genius craftsmanship notwithstanding, his title of inventor of the watch has been largely dismissed as historical mythologizing in light of references in Italy to "small, portable clocks" worn on costumes dating from some two decades earlier.

Time ticks by: highlights of watch development

For almost 300 years, the vast majority of watches were carried in the pocket or worn on a chain as a pendant, sometimes called "pomander watches." But over that period, there were numerous improvements to the devices' internal mechanisms:

• Balance spring: This greatly improved accuracy by regulating the balance wheel. English inventor Robert Hooke first came up with the idea in the late 1660s and presented it to the Royal Society in 1670, but could not patent it or produce a prototype. Christiaan Huygens completed a working watch with a balance spring in 1675 and did patent it (as he had previously patented his pendulum clock in 1656).
• Cylinder and lever escapements: These were invented by Thomas Tompion (1695) and Thomas Mudge (c. 1755), respectively. Each represented massive improvements on the verge escapement mechanism, with Mudge's lever still used in most mechanical watches to this day.
• Pin-pallet escapement: This variation on the lever escapement was cheaper to produce but not as accurate. Invented by Louis Perron in 1798, it was popularized decades later by Georges Frederic Roskopf in the 1860s, who coupled it with emerging mass-production techniques to make watches affordable to many for the first time.

The wristwatch: feminine, masculine or simply convenient?

A less obvious issue with portable timepieces was the variable effect of gravity on their internal mechanisms; constantly shifting a watch's orientation during day-to-day use reduced its accuracy. The solution was the tourbillon, patented by Abraham-Louis Breguet in 1801. This was a freely rotating cage that housed the balance wheel and escapement to counteract the wearer's movements. But Breguet's contribution to inventive history does not end there.

Nine years later, the renowned watchmaker, or "horologist," received a special commission from Caroline Murat, sister to Napoleon Bonaparte and "Queen of Naples" during France's imperial period: a watch attached to a bracelet. Breguet obliged, using hair trimmed with gold to craft a bracelet that supported a remarkably fine timepiece and, in the process, created what was probably the first true wristwatch.

Throughout most of the 1800s, wristwatches were marketed almost exclusively to women. But when English soldiers in the Boer War (1899-1902) needed a practical solution for synchronizing their maneuvers, they affixed pocket watches to their wrists with leather straps. As the 19th century gave way to the 20th, wristwatches became just as common among men as women, initially in Europe and later in the United States as soldiers returned from the First World War.

Quartz, then digital, then… back to quartz

Crystalline silicon dioxide — a.k.a. quartz — vibrates thousands of times a second when subjected to an electric current. With some tuning, this can be calibrated to exactly 32,768 times a second. Combine that regular pulse with an integrated circuit and other components, and you have a watch with millisecond accuracy. But until the 1950s, quartz was considered ideal for clocks and not suited for miniaturization.

Nevertheless, from the early 1950s to the late 1960s, Swiss, American and Japanese companies worked frantically to develop a piezoelectric-crystal watch. Seiko ultimately triumphed: After demonstrating a novel chronometer at the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo, the Japanese business released the Astron SQ in 1969 as the world's first consumer quartz watch. The first Astron saw a limited release but helped boost the manufacturer's prestige just as Seiko became the world's largest watch company in 1970. Swiss watchmakers only regained ground when two of the nation's largest watchmaking organizations merged into what later became the Swatch Group. This new company focused on mass-producing quartz watches to weather the bottoming-out demand for mechanically driven handicrafts, granting those traditional skills the breathing room to endure in the luxury market.

Alongside the quartz explosion, advances in microelectronics drove a brief surge in digital watches with light-emitting diode (LED) and liquid crystal display (LCD) screens in the '70s and '80s. The battery-hungry LED models soon faded out of favor, but LCD-display watches grew in popularity by appealing to athletes (e.g., Timex's Ironman line), technology enthusiasts (Casio's "computer watches") and image-conscious film fans.

Smartwatches vs. wearables

Watches with rudimentary computing capabilities emerged in the early 1980s, notably Seiko's RC-1000 Wrist Terminal. Few were popular other than to niche, hobbyist audiences, and some, like Microsoft's SPOT line of the mid-2000s, were abject failures.

In the early 2010s, improvements to chip technologies, near-field Bluetooth communication and cellular networks gave smartwatches a shot in the arm. But just prior to these advances, watch manufacturers were experimenting with ingenious methods of transferring data wirelessly. One such curiosity was Timex's short-lived Datalink series, which used a pattern of white bars flashed by a CRT monitor to synchronize with a computer.

Distinctive though it was, the technique did not catch on, and constant wireless pairing became the norm. Nowadays, when connected to a nearby smartphone, modern smartwatches enable access to various applications and allow users to take calls. Their short history thus far includes inspiring crowdfunding campaigns that led to dispiriting failures (Pebble) and intriguing fusions of classic and high-tech styles (Moto 360, which also did not live up to hopes).

Of course, it is no surprise that tech giants dominate this space: the Samsung Galaxy Watch, Google's Fitbit series and the Apple Watch. Apple markets its product as the complete smartwatch package, while Samsung and Google compete by offering much more affordable models with reduced functionality. These pared-down devices are sometimes called wearables to distinguish them from full-on smartwatches.

A timeless classic

As the smartwatch and wearable technology sector expands, appreciation for the intricate engineering of classic mechanical or quartz watches has not died out. One does not have to be a horologist to enjoy the precise beauty of a hand-assembled mechanism or the assuring tick of a swinging escapement. Today, men and women the world over admire the refined expression of personal style that is condensed into the ideal wristwatch.

But if the history of watchmaking teaches us anything, it is that time does not stand still; change and innovation are the beating (or ticking) heart of business. Whether you have an invention or brand for the ages, turn to the experts at Dennemeyer to protect and manage your IP.