Answer by Peter

Before watches there were clocks. One of the earliest clocks known was a water powered clock thirty feet high. This clock was used to rotate instruments in time with the daily motion of the stars and was invented by a Chinese scholar in AD 1088. One of the oldest clocks working is in Salisbury Cathedral, built in 1386. German clockmaker Peter Henlein invented the main spring and thus the first portable clock or watch in 1510. Up until this time clocks were weight driven limiting their size. Pocket watches evolved next. Wrist watches were made first by Swiss Girard Perregaux for German naval officers in 1880. They did not become popular until the First Wold War when soldiers found them practical. Actually some of the early wrist watches were small pocket watches with lugs for attaching wrist straps. The quartz crystal electronic clock and watch with an accuracy of one second in thirty years was invented in 1929.

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€That's a good question. Where would we be if we didn't know what time it was. To answer your question we went to a real expert on the subject of watches. Peter Bomford is one of the co-founders of the Ottawa Valley chapter of the National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors so he should know a lot about watches. Mr. Bomford is Nicholas Bomford's grandfather. Nicholas is in your class.

Here is an article from the Ottawa Citizen with a picture of Mr. Bomford. Thanks for your question.