The Pocket Watch Redefined

The story goes that in the 18th and early 19th century, men typically wore pocket watches and wristwatches were meant for women. However, during combat and wartimes, it was very inconvenient to keep track of time via the pocket watch. Necessity gave birth to the legendary design of wrist strap (Also known then as “Wristlet”) that was first used to house pocket watches onto the wrists for the ease of checking time during Boer War era.

Cut to present times, the Wristlet Watch is a tribute to the legend and the tale. It’s based on the original design from an era when pocket watches were adapted by being placed in leather cups with wrist straps. These wristlets allowed men to wear their watch on the wrist and when circumstances demanded, return it to the pocket for the sake of fashion!

We asked the Waves Design Studio head designer to elaborate on what inspired him to create the Wristlet Watch and this is what he had to say….

I am a big watch enthusiast. History of watches intrigue me. Sometime ago I came across an article on Wristlet watches of 18th and 19th Centuries, which I thought was very interesting. I started getting in touch with people like David Boettcher and Dr. Konrad Knirim, who has written books on Military Timepieces. I thought it would be cool to create a timepiece that depicts the origin of modern wristwatches.

Pocket watches are usually in the range of 50mm+ and as you can imagine housing a pocket watch of 50mm+ you would need a big leather cup. Along with the cup and outside seam on the leather would make the leather case diameter in the range of 55mm-60mm, which is pretty big for a wristwatch. On top of that, pocket watch “Bow” would always be protruding out of the strap. In order to make a more manageable design we started by creating custom watchcases and built our wristlet prototypes around these cases. Even though the base design is from 19th Century Wristlets watch, in our design we added elements like contrasting stitching and Sapphire Crystal to give it a more modern appeal.