1777 - Self-Winding watch

Around 1770, Abraham-Louis Perrelet of Le Locle built the first watch with automatic winding. Protoplast of the "automatic winding" were pedometers used for counting the number of horse steps and thus making it possible to measure the distance travelled. Automatic winding movement, not only in Perrelet's construction, uses the moment of inertia and the unbalanced mass placed in it.

The unbalanced mass of the mechanism moves due to changes in the position of the mechanism, and this movement enables winding the mainspring.

Due to the low efficiency (pocket watch experienced limited moves) of Perrelet's solution has been completely forgotten.

For this reason, the automatic wristwatch was rediscovered and patented in 1924.

Notifier: Władysław Meller
Other records: Timeline of Watchmaking Innovations