Peter Henlein of Germany – iron smith by profession built the world's first clock in the 15th century. It took Henlein two years to build this clock, which was the size of a drum – having six feet high and made of iron. This clock had just one hand, which indicated only the hour. However, the clock was not too accurate and was always an hour ahead or behind real time. These type of clocks hit the market in the year 1504. The specimens is still kept in the Philadelphia Memorial Hall Museum. Size was a major hurdle as the big clocks could not be carried easily and thus inconvenient. Many years later, a small watch made in different designs was built which could be used as a pendulum in a chain. These type of small watches were quite popular at that time. The problem that made pendulum watches inconvenient was that it was difficult to see the time. This led to the invention of world's first wristwatch in 1581, which was made for Queen Elizabeth I. It had a gold band studded with diamonds. But this watch also had a single hand for the hour. This technical problem was solved in 1676. For a long time, wristwatches were popular as a ladies' watch and the men generally used the pocket watch.
During the First World War when soldiers faced a difficulty in using pocket watches, the German Navy ordered wristwatches for them with only difference in style and size. This ended the taboo and men & women both started wearing wristwatches.
The world's first automatic watch was also built in Switzerland. Today's watches have three hands – the hour, minutes and seconds hands.
