Shopping Gifts
Timeless Pocket Watches
Unlike wristwatches, pocket watches are meant to be placed on coat or trousers pockets. They are often attached by a chain to a belt loop, a lapel, or a waistcoat. Pocket watches are analog-display timepieces in contrast to the many modern digital displays.
A pocket watch is never complete without its ornamental parts. It has a chain, also called the fob, attached to the watch that is normally made of such materials as gold and silver. The hinged watch cover that is found in most pocket watches to protect the face of the watch may be designed with intricate engravings or studded with gemstones. Most pocket watches also include a fastener to attach the watch to the users garments.
Pocket watches have been in circulation long before wristwatches became popular. The earliest reference to pocket watches ever made was in a letter written to the Marchese di Manta from an Italian clocksmith named Bartholomew Manfredi in the year 1462. The letter was an offer to make the Marchese a pocket clock that was better than the one owned by the Duke of Modena.
Spring-driven pocket clocks became known in Italy during the end of the 1400s. Peter Heinlein, a German locksmith who lived in Nuremberg started making many pocket watches in 1510. After that, the manufacture of pocket watches spread rapidly all over Europe.
There are two types of pocket watches. There is the open-faced that may be of the wind-up variety called a winding pocket watches. The other is the covered pocket watch or the hunter-type version. Since the pocket watchs separate second dial is usually placed close to six oclock, the pendant (also known as the stem of the open face pocket watch) is positioned at twelve oclock. For the covered ones, there is another stem, called the hunter stem, and is located at three oclock. Reading a pocket watch means you have to position the watch at a ninety-degree angle with the stem pointed to the right.
Todays pocket watches are adapting the quartz clock movement mechanism eliminating the traditional wind-up mechanism of older pocket watches.
Despite the popularity of the wristwatches, many still prefer pocket watches for that air of elegance unrivalled by the wristwatch. Pocket watches can be customized with designs and engravings on the watch cover or trinkets on pocket watch accessories. They also make perfect personalized gifts by having personal messages engraved on the cover or trinkets added to the chains.
There are a lot of options in todays pocket watches, from the standard to chronographs, ladies pendants, and Swiss Army Pocket watches. Any one of these styles is sure to make a great keepsake.