What Are Some of the Older Watchmakers?

Waltham Watches

• David Davis, Aaron Dennison and Edward Howard founded Waltham in 1850. They began manufacturing watches in Waltham, Massachusetts, in 1854. One of their more well-known watches was the "Railroad" or "Railway" pocket-watch, which they began manufacturing in 1870. Waltham was named the best watchmaker in the world after winning a gold medal in the Philadelphia Universal Expo in 1876. In 1954, more than 100 years after its creation, the Waltham Company moved its operations to Switzerland. Waltham was the first watchmaker to introduce the self-winding watch in 1966. Waltham created the Waltham 990 in 1987. The Waltham 990 was the only watch ever to be carved from 99 percent pure gold.

Rolex Watches

• Hans Wilsdorf and Edward Davis were the founders of Wilsdorf &Davis in 1905. Wilsdorf &Davis fashioned their watches by using imported internal movements from Hermann Aegler. They replaced the watches' original cases with their own high-quality ones made by other watchmakers and stamped W&D on the inside of the back case. The early watches were sold exclusively to jewelers who would in turn put their names on the watch faces. Three years later, in 1908, Wilsdorf &Davis registered the made-up name, Rolex. That name was selected so that no matter what language a person spoke, he would be able to pronounce it. In 1912 Rolex moved its headquarters from Great Brittan to Geneva, Switzerland.

  Rolex was the first company to create a waterproof case; the first to add a date to the dial and the first to make a self-winding watch. Rolex was also one of the major players in developing quartz movements.

  Hans Wilsdorf, along with the Aegler family, provided 100 percent of the funding for Rolex and included a stipulation that the company can never be sold.

Piaget Watches

• Swiss farmer Georges Edouard Piaget began making precision internal movements in 1874 which were to be sold to prominent watchmakers. He began his quest in a workshop he built on the family farm and quickly developed an outstanding reputation for the ultimate in quality movements. Piaget soon became a family business which was taken over by Georges Edouard's son, Timothee Piaget in 1911. Timothee was as passionate about watchmaking as his father and the name Piaget remains unparalleled for mastery in watchmaking.

  In 1960 Piaget created the Calibre 12P, the thinnest, self-winding watch in the world at a mere 2.3 millimeters in thickness. Piaget's watch designs are both stunning and unique. Some of its watch creations include the coin watch, brooch watch, ring watch and a cuff-link watch.

Seiko Watches

• The first watch bearing the name Seiko was created in 1924. Seiko is the first watchmaker to introduce the quartz watch in 1969 and the first to develop a six-digit, LCD quartz watch in 1973.

  In 1983, one of the most unique things Seiko invented was the world's first watch with a built-in television. The television watch received UHF and VHF channels on the watch face using a liquid crystal display. The watch also received FM radio. Two AA batteries were used for the television and radio functions and a regular watch battery was used for the digital time display. The watch came with a separate TV receiver and audio headphones. This unique watch is on display at the Smithsonian.