National Watch Day Date in the current year: June 19, 2025

A watch is a timepiece that is carried or worn by a person. The most common type is the wristwatch, which is worn around the wrist. For this reason, wristwatches are often referred to simply as “watches”. Other types of watches include pocket watches, pendant watches, and ring watches.

For centuries, people relied on water clocks and hourglasses to keep time. The first attempts at creating mechanical clocks were made in the 13th century, and watches became possible in the 15th century thanks to the invention of the mainspring.

Peter Henlein, a German clockmaker from Nuremberg, is credited with inventing the watch. He crafted portable timepieces worn as pendants. His Watch 1505 is widely regarded as the world’s first watch. However, other German clockmakers crafted similar miniature timepieces around the same time, so Henlein may not have been the first.

These early clock-watches were heavy and fell between clocks and watches in size. They were worn on chains as pendants or fastened to clothing. In the late 17th century, men began wearing pocket watches for several reasons. One reason was fashion. Charles II of England popularized pocketed waistcoats, and by extension, pocket watches. The second reason was purely practical: protection from the elements. To fit in pockets, watches became flatter. Men also started using watch fobs (chains or ribbons attached to watches that hung out of the pocket) to make watches easier to retrieve.

Wristwatches were originally worn by women. Some say that Elizabeth I of England was given a wristwatch by her favorite, Robert Dudley, in 1571. Others claim that the world’s first wristwatch was created by the Swiss-French horologist Abraham-Louis Breguet for Caroline Bonaparte, queen consort of Naples, in 1810. By the mid-19th century, most watchmakers produced wristwatches for women, often marketing them as bracelets.

The first men to wear wristwatches were British Army officers in the late 19th century. They used the watches to coordinate troop movements. After World War I, wristwatches reached the mass market and soon became far more popular than pocket watches. The first self-winding (automatic) wristwatch was patented in 1923; the first generation of electric watches was released in the 1950s; and quartz watches became commercially available in 1969. The introduction of quartz watches is believed to have revolutionized the watch industry.

After mobile phones and smartphones became popular, watches became less common because many people started relying on their phones to tell time. However, some continued wearing watches as accessories or status symbols. The introduction of contemporary smartwatches in the 2010s has resulted in a resurgence in watch popularity. Additionally, special watches are used by astronauts in space and scuba divers.

Established in 2017 by the American luxury department store Nordstrom, National Watch Day celebrates the transformation of watches from utilitarian timepieces to fashion statements and prestige gifts in an age when watches are no longer necessary for telling time. National Watch Day acknowledges the long and rich history of watchmaking while highlighting this new status.