Pocket Watches

A pocket watch (or pocketwatch) usually is a strapless personal timepiece that is carried in a pocket. The display is traditionally analog. Pocket watches generally have a chain to be secured to a waistcoat, lapel, or belt loop (the chain or ornaments on it being known as fobs), as well as a hinged cover to protect the face of the watch. Such covers are not always present. Also common are fasteners designed to be put through a buttonhole and worn in a jacket or waistcoat, this sort being frequently associated with and named after train conductors.

An early reference to the pocket watch is in a letter in November 1462 from the Italian clockmaker Bartholomew Manfredi to the Marchese di Manta, where he offers him a 'pocket clock' better than that belonging to the Duke of Modena. By the end of the 15th Century, spring-driven clocks appeared in Italy, and in Germany, Peter Henlein (a master locksmith of Nuremberg) was regularly manufacturing pocket watches by 1510. Thereafter, pocket watch manufacture spread throughout the rest of Europe as the 16th Century progressed.

Source: Wikipedia