Pocket watch

A portable timepiece designed to be carried in a pocket, often attached to a chain and read by opening its case.

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Watch movement: The mechanism inside a watch that measures and displays time. The movement is the pocket watch’s timekeeping engine, housed inside its case.
Peter Henlein: A German locksmith and clockmaker associated with early portable spring-driven clocks in the sixteenth century. Henlein’s portable timepieces are often linked to the early history of pocket watches.
Railway time: A standardized time system used to coordinate railway schedules and operations. Railway workers relied on accurate pocket watches to keep trains running to schedule.
Wristwatch: A timepiece worn on the wrist, usually secured by a strap or bracelet. The wristwatch displaced the pocket watch for many everyday uses.
Balance wheel: A rotating wheel that oscillates with a hairspring to regulate a mechanical watch. Its regular oscillations set the rate of a mechanical pocket watch.
Nuremberg eggs: Small, rounded early portable clocks made in sixteenth-century Nuremberg. These early spring-driven clocks show the forms from which pocket watches developed.
Railway chronometer: A highly regulated pocket watch intended to meet railway standards for accuracy and reliability. These watches were made to satisfy strict requirements for railway service.
Pendant watch: A small watch designed to be worn suspended from a chain or necklace. It carries a watch as jewelry rather than in a pocket.
Escapement: A mechanism that releases a clock’s or watch’s gear train in controlled steps. The escapement converts the movement’s stored energy into the balance wheel’s regulated motion.
Verge escapement: An early escapement used in mechanical clocks and watches, commonly paired with a balance wheel. Its use in early portable clocks limited accuracy and helped shape their design.