Harwood, Original Maker Of The Automatic Wrist Watch Resurfaces: Look Past Lukewarm Looks For Interesting Designs

Hi

As a small boy i remember being taken by my grand father to a watch shop in Harrow Middx UK he had purchased 2 Harwood self winding watches 1 of these to-day is still in my possession.It still works and looks very small against modern day watches this would have been around c1955 can any body add further comments to the where abouts since then?Can any-body give me a value on this watch Thanks

One of the older Harwood watches was a gift from my son, Wm. Harwood Runner. My earliest knowledge of the family is Wm. J. m.1827 to Elizabeth M. Newsom at Petersburg VA, their son Edward Organ Harwood my line. He had a brother Francis N. living at Baltimore MD in 1900. Wm. J. later m. 1839 Eliza Redford. And so on to my paternal grandmother, the name is still in the family.

John Harwood was my great grandfather. My father owns the original prototype he created. Pretty neat stuff regardless if he invented the automatic watch or not. =) I was interested in getting my hands on one of these "new" harwood watches, but since they are only mimicking a brand that extinguished nearly 100 years ago, seems kinda fluffy. Not to mention the style is rather lacking, although english and old fashioned in nature for sure.

Kyle,
Always a pleasure. There will be many more interesting topics of conversation sure to come up.

Well, we agree on one thing for sure - there is often a lot of marketing hype clouding the facts!

The Perrelet brand has been revived in the last few years on the single theme that it is the "inventor of the automatic watch". Clever slogan, in that most consumers will not make the assumption that "watch" in the late 1700's meant pocket watch!

Thanks for your editorial insights. Best Regards.

Kyle,
It is easy to get confused, and I certainly don't know all the facts. Harwood is careful not to describe itself as the first maker of automatic movements. It simply was the first to import the concept into wrist watches. The beginning of wrist watches was not a logical next step for pocket watches, that still had the luxury of being a "gentleman's watch." A wrist watch was really a blue collar device, even though the early ones still cost a lot. It was not until the first world war that wrist watches found a lot of use, and the brutality of war invigorated watch makers to focus on creating sturdier, more functional wrist watches. This is the lineage behind Harwood, and many other watch makers at the time.
You are right that Breguet came up with the first automatic movements, but they were limited to pocket watches. Perrelet was likely instrumental, but I don't know if they even actually got a working watch out of making the movement. The first wrist watch was little more than a pocket watch strapped to the wrist. Funny enough, there was not much demand for automatic watches for many years. It was not seem as a big deal to wind watches. For some, even a pleasure. Further, the position of a pocket watch on a coat or pocket was not really great for winding, as there was not enough oscillating movement. Thus, manual winding was the best form of powering a watch until wrist watch become more popular. The automatic movement found its way into wrist watches relatively soon after wrist watches became mainstream. Hope that clears things up a bit. You really need to wade through lots of marketing BS that the watch companies produce before you can get to the facts. Thanks for reading.

Interesting, although the facts of hisotry have never been entirely clear to me, I believe that credit for the first automatic wrist watch should go to Perrelet an/or Breguet. Perrelet claims the first selfwinding movement circa 1770. Breguet claims the first automatic watch, or perpetuelle, circa 1780 - but these may have been pocket watches. Breguet also claims the first wristwatch, via a commission from the Queen of Naples dated June 8th 1810 (the watch, Breguet watch no. 2639 took 2.5 years to complete). Thus, it seems odd to me that that automatic wristwatch did not follow for a century after both the automatic movement and wristwatch were invented, but I don't know for certain.

I appreciate any further insight you may have!