TheΒ history of watchesΒ began in 16th-century Europe, whereΒ watchesΒ evolved from portable spring-driven clocks, which first appeared in the 15th century.

The watch was made by inventors and engineers developed from the 16th century to the mid-20th century was a mechanical device, powered by winding aΒ mainspringΒ which turned gears and then moved the hands; it kept time with a rotatingΒ balance wheel. In the 1960s the invention of theΒ quartz watchΒ which ran on electricity and kept time with a vibratingΒ quartz crystal, proved a radical departure for theΒ watchmakingΒ industry. During the 1980s quartz watches took over the market from mechanical watches, a process referred toas the “quartz crisis”. Although mechanical watches still sell at the high end of the watch market, the vast majority of watches as of 2020Β have quartz movements.

One account of the origin of the word “watch” suggests that it came from theΒ Old EnglishΒ wordΒ woecceΒ which meantΒ “watchman”, because town watchmen used watches to keep track of their shifts. Another theory surmises that the term came from 17th-century sailors, who used the new mechanisms to time the length of their shipboardΒ watchesΒ (duty shifts).

TheΒ Oxford English DictionaryΒ records the wordΒ watchΒ in association with aΒ timepieceΒ from at least as early as 1542.