From the sundial to Shinola, a brief history of timekeeping.
The sundial is invented. Not that anyone really had anywhere to be.
The first American watch companies, like Waltham Watch Company, Elgin National Watch Company, and E. Howard & Co., are established near Boston and in Illinois.
Radioactive radium paint is used to make watch hands glow in the dark. After clients and employees lose teeth and develop cancer, the radium is eventually replaced by safe photoluminescent materials like zinc sulfide and strontium aluminate.
Louis Cartier creates the signature Tank watch, modeled on the aerial silhouette of the Renault tanks he saw while fighting for the French during World War I.
The Rolex Oyster becomes the first water-resistant watch after the free-spinning crown is replaced by a threaded crown, allowing it to screw in to the case.
IWC Schaffhausen introduces the Big Pilot's Watch, designed with a large onion crown (now IWC's signature) that allowed pilots to adjust their watches without removing their gloves.
Blancpain's Fifty Fathoms introduces a unidirectional rotating bezel—the outer ring that divers use to monitor remaining air—so that, if the bezel is bumped, the biggest threat to the diver is surfacing with more air than he expects.
Deep-sea divers discover that helium atoms can leak into watches, building up pressure and cracking the crystal. In response, brands like Doxa create escape valves—automatic, one-way valves that release pressure as the diver surfaces.
The first digital watch, the Pulsar, is released by the Hamilton Watch Company.
Casio's iconic C-80 calculator watch debuts.
Shinola opens in Detroit, delivering manufacturing jobs back to a city that needs and deserves them—and beautiful, accessible American watches to the rest of us.
The Pebble smart watch sells out before it's even introduced.
Bathys Hawaii Cesium 133, the first self-contained atomic clock—and thus the only perfect timekeeper—debuts.
Filson partners with Shinola, expanding the classic fieldwear company to include its first line of wristwear.