The Unique Watch Guide
With many modern devices having a time display, in particular cellphones, modern watchmakers are coming out with more radical, unique and unusual designs to attract attention and gain customers.
The Unique Watch Guide covers some of the wide selection of unique or distinctive watches that are available today. The site is updated weekly to provide you with the latest news on unique watches. It also relates some of their history and development and identifies the visual, operational and functional characteristics that make them out of the ordinary.
The Unique Watch Guide was set up in 2009 and is a web magazine dedicated to providing news and information about watches that are out of the ordinary or in some way unique or unusual. We try not to focus on luxury watches since there are already too many luxury watch blogs out there.
You will also find more in depth information on the history and development of certain watch types, as well as articles covering unique types of watches. The aim is to grow into a large well-respected information source within the industry.
A little about the wristwatch, its evolution and constant development.
In the beginning wristwatches were worn only by women, as much for adornment as for practical timekeeping. Men found them to be too feminine and preferred the more substantial and probably more accurate pocket watch.
Soldiers during the first world war however found a quick glance at the wrist so much more convenient and speedy than hauling out the much larger timepiece from under a greatcoat, an action which could get you killed. From here on the wristwatches popularity steadily developed.
Wristwatches have also steadily improved since and as new developments took place so novel applications and designs were found. In the 1920s Rolex produced a waterproof wristwatch and soon after introduced a self winding version. New materials were used to make watches more durable enabling them to be used in more testing environments.
In the latter half of the 20th century quartz movements were introduced, further widening the scope for innovation and more recently still, microprocessors were developed for wristwatches giving them almost unlimited opportunities for novel applications.
Unique watch Timeline
This timeline shows some of the unique watches that have been introduced since the beginning of the twentieth century, beginning with the first Dive watch in 1932.| Watch Type | Year | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Dive | 1932 | Omega debuted its Marine watch in 1932, considered to be the first Dive watch. It used a unique case within a case to help with waterproofing and in 1936 before the age of scuba diving gear Charles Beebe an underwater researcher dove down to a depth of 14m using weighted boots and the watch strapped to his diving suit. |
| Electric | 1957 | In January 1957, the Hamilton watch company announced the "Electric 500" it was unique for being the first watch to never need winding because it was the first electric powered watch. |
| Quartz | 1969 | The Seiko Astron was released in Tokyo on December 25, 1969, after ten years of research and development. Within one week 100 gold watches had been sold, at a retail price of 450,000 yen (US$1,250) each (at the time, equivalent to the price of a medium-sized Japanese automobile) |
| LED | 1971 | In the autumn of 1971 the Hamilton company released the first LED watch. This was also the first watch to display time in an electronic digital format as well as being the first all electronic watch. |
| Solar | 1972 | The first version of a solar watch was produced by inventor Roger Riehl in March 1968, a prototype followed in 1970 and a full production version called the 'Synchronar' was released in 1972 |
| Calculator | 1976 | Pulsar is credited with bringing out the first mass produced Calculator watch in 1976. |
| TV | 1983 | The first TV watch that Seiko introduced back in 1983. It had quite a low contrast blue and white LCD screen and received UHF and VHF TV channels with a separate TV receiver which was intended to be placed in your pocket. |
| Talking | 1984 | First talking watch |
| Atomic | 1990 | The first atomic watch was released by the German company Junghans and was called the "Mega 1". It had the receiver mounted in its strap and during the early morning hours would receive signals from the atomic clock in Frankfurt. |
| GPS | 1999 | In June 1999 Casio released the first GPS watch, it was the top of the range model in their Protrek series of outdoor watches. |
| E Ink | 2005 | 2005 Seiko released a prototype of the first E-ink watch , called the Spectrum. It was a unique watch with a bracelet style design aimed at women. |
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