-
1 Harwood, John
SUBJECT AREA: Horology[br]b. 1893 Bolton, Englandd. 9 August 1964[br]English watchmaker, inventor and producer of the first commercial self-winding wrist watch.[br]John Harwood served an apprenticeship as a watch repairer in Bolton, and after service in the First World War he obtained a post with a firm of jewellers in Douglas, Isle of Man. He became interested in the self-winding wrist watch, not because of the convenience of not having to wind it, but because of its potential to keep the mainspring fully wound and to exclude dust and moisture from the watch movement. His experience at the bench had taught him that these were the most common factors to affect adversely the reliability of watches. Completely unaware of previous work in this area, in 1922 he started experimenting and two years later he had produced a serviceable model for which he was granted a patent in 1924. The watch operated on the pedometer principle, the mainspring being wound by a pivoted weight that oscillated in the watch case as a result of the motion of the arm. The hands of his watch were set by rotating the bezel surrounding the dial, dispensing with the usual winding/hand-setting stem which allowed dust and moisture to enter the watch case. He took the watch to Switzerland, but he was unable to persuade the watchmaking firms to produce it until he had secured independent finance to cover the cost of tooling. The Harwood Self-Winding Watch Company Ltd was set up in 1928 to market the watches, but although several thousand were produced the company became a victim of the slump and closed down in 1932. The first practical self-winding watch also operated on the pedometer principle and is attributed to Abraham-Louis Perrellet (1770). The method was refined by Breguet in France and by Recordon, who patented the device in England, but it proved troublesome and went out of fashion. There was a brief revival of interest in self-winding watches towards the end of the nineteenth century, but they never achieved great popularity until after the Second World War, when they used either self-winding mechanisms similar to that devised by Harwood or weights which rotated in the case.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsBritish Horological Institute Gold Medal 1957.Bibliography1 September 1924, Swiss patent no. 106,582.Further ReadingA.Chapuis and E.Jaquet, 1956, The History of the Self-Winding Watch, London (provides general information)."How the automatic wrist watch was invented", 1957, Horological Journal 99:612–61 (for specific information).DV
См. также в других словарях:
Watch — For other uses, see Watch (disambiguation). Early wrist watch by Waltham, worn by soldiers in World War I (Deutsches Uhrenmuseum, Inv. 47 3352) A watch is a small timepiece, typically worn either on the wrist or attached on a chain and carried in … Wikipedia
watch — /woch/, v.i. 1. to be alertly on the lookout, look attentively, or observe, as to see what comes, is done, or happens: to watch while an experiment is performed. 2. to look or wait attentively and expectantly (usually fol. by for): to watch for a … Universalium
Elgin National Watch Company — The Elgin National Watch Company was founded in August 1864 as the National Watch Company. A number of former associates of the Waltham Watch Company and Chicago watchmaker J.C. Adams had discussed forming the first large watch company in the… … Wikipedia
Automatic watch — An automatic or self winding watch is a mechanical watch, whose mainspring is wound automatically by the natural motion of the wearer s arm, to make it unnecessary to manually wind the watch. Most mechanical watches sold today are self winding.… … Wikipedia
The Weird Lovemakers — were a Punk rock band based in Tucson, Arizona from 1994 to 2000. Members* Héctor Jaime (Vocals, Bass) * Greg Petix (Vocals, Guitar) * Gerard Schumacher (Drums, Vocals) * Jason Willis (Guitar, Vocals) History Pre HistoryGreg Petix and Gerard… … Wikipedia
The Beatles' influence on popular culture — The Beatles influence on rock music and popular culture was and remains immense. Their commercial success started an almost immediate wave of changes including a shift from US global dominance of rock and roll to UK acts, from soloists to groups … Wikipedia
Breguet (watch) — Infobox Company company name = Breguet SA company type = Member of the Swatch Group company company slogan = foundation = 1775 by Abraham Louis Breguet location city = Vallée de Joux location country = Switzerland key people = Abraham Louis… … Wikipedia
Mechanical watch — The movement of a Russian watch A mechanical watch is a watch that uses a mechanical mechanism to measure the passage of time, as opposed to modern quartz watches which function electronically. It is driven by a spring (called a mainspring) which … Wikipedia
The Beatles — This article is about the band. For other uses, see The Beatles (disambiguation). Fab Four redirects here. For other uses, see Fab Four (disambiguation) … Wikipedia
History of the Dallas Cowboys — This article details the history of the Dallas Cowboys American Football Club. The team joined the National Football League as a 1960 expansion team, and has become one of the most successful teams in the history of the NFL and in American sports … Wikipedia
HISTORICAL SURVEY: THE STATE AND ITS ANTECEDENTS (1880–2006) — Introduction It took the new Jewish nation about 70 years to emerge as the State of Israel. The immediate stimulus that initiated the modern return to Zion was the disappointment, in the last quarter of the 19th century, of the expectation that… … Encyclopedia of Judaism
