Wrist Candy

When the “portable clock” appeared nearly 500 years ago, it was much too heavy to carry. In the 1700s, people stuck watches in their pockets or hung them around their necks. One hundred years later, exiled Huguenot clockmakers and Calvinist jewelers in Switzerland collaborated on the automatic watch. In 1810, the queen of Naples wore one of the first wristwatches, with a band spun of hair and gold. In the 1900s, quartz and digital watches ascended. And today? Collectors still can’t resist complicated, luxurious works of perpetual beauty that hint at what we always wish we had more of: Time.