The watch as we know it today came into being out of the necessity of portability in the shipping and navigation industry in the early 15th century. The problem they had was that while the latitude could be measured by looking at the stars, the only way to determine longitude was by comparing the midday time of the local longitude to a European meridian like Paris or Greenwich. This was a very unreliable way of doings things until John Harrison introduced the chronometer.
The first fairly accurate clocks used weighted pendulums, which by their very nature were of no use at sea or in a portable watch. The invention of the spring mechanism brought in the development of pocket clockes in Tudor England allowing clockmakers the ability to put a time keeping device in a small, mobile, container.
The very first pocket watch was created by Peter Henlein in 1524 and it is rumored that Henry VIII had one of these kept on a chain around his neck. These early watches only had an hour hand, the inaccuracy of the watches at this time made a minute hand useless. The evolution of the miniaturization process of these spring based designs allowed for the making of portable watches...
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