For the better part of the nearly three and a half millennia that humankind has measured and recorded time, clocks and other instruments have mostly been large objects, occupying pillars and towers within major town centres. The miniaturization of timepieces into a more pocketable form, i.e. the pocket watch, is a relatively recent occurrence in this regard and the wristwatch later still. In fact, the first recorded pocket watch is attributed to German watchmaker, Peter Henlein in the late 1400s and the first timepiece worn on the arm seems to be one that was made for Queen Elisabeth I in 1571 as a gift from the first Earl of Leicester, Robert Dudley. Now it is important to reiterate the “worn on the arm” aspect once more, because Queen Elisabeth I’s 1571 piece is described to have been a clock full of diamonds suspended by a bracelet that could be worn on the arm, not quite the wrist.
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