Series ・ 10 parts

Keepers of Time: A World History of Luxury Watches

From the medieval tower clock to the invention of the escapement, from the mainspring that gave birth to portable timepieces, to the arrival of the pocket watch. Episode 1 of a serialized history that traces, through the historical record, humanity's desire to 'own' time.

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01 The Desire to Measure Time — How Humanity Came to Own the Hours From the medieval tower clock to the invention of the escapement, from the mainspring that gave birth to portable timepieces, to the arrival of the pocket watch. Episode 1 of a serialized history that traces, through the historical record, humanity's desire to 'own' time.
02 How Switzerland, the Land of Watches, Was Born — The Craftsmen Carried by the Storms of Faith Why did Switzerland become the land of watches? The Reformation and Calvin's ban on luxury, the exiled Huguenot craftsmen who fled persecution, and the snowbound peasants of the Jura mountains who assembled watches in winter through a cottage industry. Episode 2 depicts the birth of the Swiss watch industry.
03 The Watch That Conquered Longitude — How the Sea and the Railway Aligned the World's Time Latitude could be read from the stars, but longitude could not be known without an accurate clock. Many ships lost their position and vanished on the rocks. This third episode follows the obscure craftsman John Harrison, who took up the riddle the sea had posed, and the way the railway eventually drew the world's time into a single line.
04 The Revolution on the Wrist — How War Strapped a Watch to Men The wristwatch was once seen as a woman's ornament, and for a man to wear one on his wrist was said to be almost shameful. The 'Santos,' born for a young man who flew through the sky; the military watches that kept men alive in the trenches; and how the watch shifted its home from the pocket to the wrist — this fourth episode traces the birth of the wristwatch as a practical tool.
05 The Nobility of Timekeeping ― The Pride Geneva Protected In the quiet workshops of Geneva, the watch climbed past the bounds of a practical tool toward the heights of art. Patek Philippe, Vacheron Constantin, Audemars Piguet. We trace, on a factual basis, the three names called the Holy Trinity and the summit of complication reached by a mechanism of 920 parts.
06 The Invention Called Rolex ― The Ruler Proven by a Strait and a Summit The wrist of a woman who swam the English Channel, and a climber standing on the summit of Everest. The single name that Hans Wilsdorf built carved its inventions of waterproofing and automatic winding into the world, together with stories of adventure. We tell, on a factual basis, the story of a ruler that became a byword for trust.
07 The Quartz Shock — The Day Japan Toppled Switzerland On Christmas Day 1969, the world's first quartz wristwatch was born in a small Japanese laboratory. Switzerland, the kingdom of mechanical watches, was swept under by a wave of cheap, accurate timepieces, facing an unprecedented crisis that halved both its jobs and its companies. Was it a revolution, or a tragedy?
08 The Swatch Counterattack — How Plastic Saved Switzerland A single consultant, Nicolas Hayek, rescues a Swiss watch industry on the brink of liquidation. His weapon was a cheap plastic watch of just 51 parts: the 'Swatch.' Earn with the cheap, redefine mechanical as luxury — a story of a strategy of reversal.
09 A Fortune for the Obsolete — The Mystery of the Mechanical Renaissance The mechanical watch had supposedly lost to quartz on accuracy alone, so why did it come back to life? Asset value, status, and a return to story—tracing the mechanical renaissance from the 1990s onward, we quietly consider, in both its light and its shadow, why people pay a fortune for an outdated machine.
10 In the Age of the Smartwatch, Why Do Mechanical Watches Keep Selling? The Apple Watch appeared, and the wristwatch changed shape once again. Even so, mechanical watches kept selling, and the secondary market is reported to have overheated. What does a luxury watch mean in the age of the smartwatch? As the final chapter of a ten-episode journey, we do not rush to an answer, but gently survey the relationship between watches and people.