Watches became an accessory back in the 1850s with the production of the first wristwatch. Since then wristwatches have become a must-have accessory for all men and women and have taken on various shapes and forms and are and come in a variety of styles, sizes, and mechanics.

Wristwatch

The wristwatch is the most popular and common style of watch found today. They come in numerous styles such as formal dress watches, casual everyday watches, funky sports watches, or chic fashion watches. Each style has its own set of defining characteristics – dress watches are understated and simple whereas sports watches are large, lightweight and packed with features such as timers and stopwatches. There is a wide choice of straps and metal chains to go with an even wider choice of dial shapes – especially in women’s wristwatches.

Pocket Watch

This is the oldest style of watch that is available in the market – it’s been around since the 1500s. It has enjoyed a lot of attention in literature and media – having been an item of major focus in O. Henry’s “The Gift of the Magi”. Originally, pocket watches required to be wound daily but today pocket watches can be found in mechanical self-wind styles, but the classic wind-up versions are still available.

Analog Watch

These are the typical watches that you find in the market with two or three hands on a typically round dial. The hours 1 through 12 are clearly mentioned on the dial, design markers are optional to add some element of style. The way these are different from digital watches is that they tell time using mechanical gears and do not store any information.

Digital Watches

Digital watches are able to store and manipulate numbers. Pictures, words and sounds are translated into number-form for processing by a computer. Unlike an analog watch that functions with gears, the electronics of digital watches store numbers representing the time and then display them on the dial.

Quartz Watches

Today watches with quartz technology are the most common type. They are loved for their accuracy and consistency. These watches work by having a tiny piece of quartz oscillate at 32,000 vibrations per second. This is the secret to its accuracy. Quartz watches only lose 10 seconds per month. An added benefit of quartz watches is that they don’t need winding and only need batteries to be replaced once every one or two years.