Watch and Pray
Hall of Fame
The people who taught the world to keep time, in order of birth.
“He hath made every thing beautiful in his time.” Ecclesiastes 3:11 (KJV)
1020–1101
Su Song
China
A scholar and statesman of the Song dynasty who, between 1088 and 1092, built a water-driven astronomical clock tower more than thirty feet tall at the capital, Kaifeng. Its mechanism checked the turning of its great wheel in steady steps, an early ancestor of the escapement in every mechanical watch. His illustrated account of it, finished in 1094, survives.
In the books: Volume 4, Day 5
c. 1485–1542
Peter Henlein
Germany
A locksmith and clockmaker of Nuremberg, long credited with some of the first small, spring-driven clocks that could be carried. How much he invented himself is still debated, but he stands at the start of the road from the clock tower to the pocket.
1629–1695
Christiaan Huygens
The Netherlands
A Dutch mathematician and astronomer who built the first pendulum clock in 1656, improving the accuracy of clocks from minutes a day to seconds. In 1675 he brought the balance spring to the watch, the same idea that regulates mechanical watches today.
1639–1713
Thomas Tompion
England
Called the father of English clockmaking. He made the clocks for the new Royal Observatory at Greenwich and thousands of watches and clocks of a quality London had not seen. He is buried in Westminster Abbey.
1673–1751
George Graham
England
Tompion’s apprentice and successor. He perfected the deadbeat escapement for precision clocks and the cylinder escapement for watches, and he lent a young John Harrison money to begin his sea clocks. He is buried in the same grave as Tompion.
1693–1776
John Harrison
England
A carpenter with no formal training who spent most of his life solving the problem of longitude at sea. His fourth marine timekeeper, the H4 of 1759, kept time well enough on a voyage to Jamaica to fix a ship’s position, and it changed navigation for good.
In the books: Volume 1, Day 28
1729–1826
Abraham-Louis Perrelet
Switzerland
A watchmaker of Le Locle who, around 1777, built a pocket watch that wound itself as its owner walked. The self-winding watch, the automatic, begins with him.
In the books: Volume 1, Day 9
1747–1823
Abraham-Louis Breguet
Switzerland and France
Perhaps the greatest watchmaker who ever lived. Working in Paris, he invented or perfected the tourbillon (patented in 1801), the overcoil balance spring and the shock protection called the parachute, and his hands and dials are still copied. In 1810 he began one of the first wristwatches, for Caroline Murat, Queen of Naples.
1799–1881
Hisashige Tanaka
Japan
An inventor known in Japan as “Karakuri Giemon.” His Myriad Year Clock of 1851 shows Western and traditional Japanese time, the day of the week, the moon and more, and winds for a year. The workshop he founded became part of Toshiba.
In the books: Volume 4, Day 14
1812–1877 · 1815–1894
Antoni Patek and Adrien Philippe
Poland, France and Switzerland
Patek, a Polish cavalry officer who settled in Geneva, sold fine watches; Philippe, a French watchmaker, invented a watch wound and set by its crown instead of a key, patented in 1845. Together they built Patek Philippe, still among the most respected names in watchmaking.
1860–1934
Kintaro Hattori
Japan
He opened a watch and jewelry shop in Tokyo in 1881 and in 1892 founded the Seikosha factory, which made Japan’s first wristwatch in 1913. Seiko and Grand Seiko grew from it.
1875–1942
Louis Cartier
France
Grandson of the founder of Cartier. In 1904 he made a wristwatch for his friend Alberto Santos-Dumont, a Brazilian aviator who needed to read the time without letting go of the controls. The Santos helped make the wristwatch a man’s watch. The Tank followed in 1917.
In the books: Volume 1, Day 1
1881–1960
Hans Wilsdorf
Germany, England and Switzerland
He founded the company in London that became Rolex, believed the wristwatch could be as accurate as any pocket watch, and proved it. His waterproof Oyster case of 1926 crossed the English Channel on the wrist of the swimmer Mercedes Gleitze in 1927.
1926–2011
George Daniels
England
One of the few watchmakers of modern times to make every part of a watch himself, by hand. He invented the co-axial escapement, the first truly new escapement in some two hundred years, which Omega put into production in 1999. His book Watchmaking is still a standard.
In the books: Volume 2, Day 10 and the last chapter; Volume 3, the last chapter
1928–2010
Nicolas G. Hayek
Lebanon and Switzerland
Born in Beirut, he was called in when cheap quartz watches had nearly ruined Swiss watchmaking. In 1983 he merged the two largest Swiss watch groups, backed the plastic Swatch, and built what became the Swatch Group, home of Omega, Breguet, Longines and others.
1931–2011
Gérald Genta
Switzerland
The most influential watch designer of the twentieth century. He drew the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak (1972), the Patek Philippe Nautilus (1976) and the IWC Ingenieur SL (1976), and made the steel sports watch a luxury.
born 1948
Philippe Dufour
Switzerland
A watchmaker of the Vallée de Joux who works almost alone. His Grande Sonnerie of 1992 was the first wristwatch with grande and petite sonnerie and minute repeater, and his Simplicity of 2000 is a plain time-only watch finished so well that collectors measure others against it.
In the books: Volume 1, Day 5
born 1970
Roger W. Smith
England
George Daniels’s only apprentice. On the Isle of Man he and a small team make nearly every part of their watches by hand, carrying Daniels’s methods and his co-axial escapement forward.
In the books: Volume 3, Day 22