Notes from the Field
A Brief History of a Time (Piece): Harold Hawes, World War I and the rise of the men’s wristwatch
This edition of “Notes in the Field” is in collaboration with Norwich University alumni, Andrew Liptak. Andrew is a writer and historian from Vermont. He is the Public Relation and Guest Services Coordinator for the Vermont Historical Society, and is the author Cosplay: A History (Saga Press, June, 2022), a broad history of how cosplay came to be a mainstream force, and what it says about our relationship with the stories we love. You can order it here. His full bio can be found here.
This article was originally published in the Summer 2023 issue of History Connections, the Vermont Historical Society's member magazine. To subscribe and support their work, head over to their website.
“Do you have the time?”
If you wear a wristwatch, you might have just glanced at your wrist, looking at what the tiny arms and numbers on the dial tell you. Presently, the global wristwatch industry accounts for tens of billions of dollars in revenue each year, encompassing everything from expensive, high-end timepieces like Rolex and the modern Apple Watch, to the ubiquitous and utilitarian Timex.
For more than a century, the wristwatch has been a popular and useful accessory. One item in the Vermont Historical Society’s vast collection is a good representative example of how watches became a common and indispensable part of one’s everyday outfit: a Lancet owned by Harold Hawes of Barre.
The story of clocks and timekeeping stretches back millennia and is integral to the history of technology and industry. The first mechanical timepieces emerged from Europe in the 13th and 14th centuries for city towers, and technological innovations allowed inventors to devise smaller clocks.
When wrist-worn clocks were invented, they were relegated to the realm of women’s fashion, known as “wristlets,” while a pocket watch became an indispensable tool for the men involved in the industrializing workplace, where precision timekeeping was essential.
The mechanized nature of war brought a new level of precision to the battlefield: maneuvers and actions could be coordinated in time and space, and in the heat of battle, fishing a watch out of a pocket cost precious seconds of attention. In her book, Marking Modern Times: A History of Clocks, Watches, and Other Timekeepers in American Life, Alexis McCrossen explains how British soldiers began to strap their pocket watches to their wrists during the Second Boer War in South Africa, so they could read them at a moment’s notice. It was a move that helped prompt the clock’s shift from a man’s pocket to his wrist.
With the advent of the First World War, clock manufacturers recognized a growing market for a new product: the trench watch.
To read the conclusion of the article, please click over to Andrew’s newsletter: “Transfer Orbit”
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