Publisher's Synopsis
This is the new edition of a book on watches, published for the first time in 2005 and reprinted many times since then. A book that narrates the birth and development of the time machines by focusing on wristwatches. The initial part illustrates the centrality of the object-watch in the everyday life, with particular reference to its social impact on modern Western civilisation, which has taken place throughout a journey that has allowed - epoch after epoch and thanks to an increasingly advanced industrialisation - to hand over time measurement, from bell towers and belfries to inside the homes until the wrist. On the other hand, the central part is dedicated to the major watch brands, capable of touching with their manufacturing ability and esthetic pursuit. Peculiarities which have contributed in generating a strong and by now well-established passion among an increasingly vast public of collectors that follows the industry dynamics with competence and attention, enhancing the rarity, but also the innovative energy of the models offered over time by the various brands. A story told through the company dynamics of 55 well-known brands, most of which are still active today. The wonderful watches illustrated in the volume prove the continuous technological and design advances developed by the pioneering epoch of the early 1900s until the complete maturity reached in the '50s and '60s, through the arrival of the quartz in the '70s and '80s until the strong comeback of the mechanical passion occurred after the year 2000. High-complexity models, of essential style or as a result of technological and/or design experimentation are called Calatrava for Patek Philippe, Royal Oak for Audemars Piguet, Santos and Tank for Cartier, Submarines for Rolex - just to name a few. Let's not forget about the colourful Swatch, a shot where plastic and the most innovative materials are matched with the preciousness of gold and diamonds. The glossary and the bibliography in the last pages allow, in the end, to make this long journey into the world of timekeeping devices equipped with the fundamental notions of watches.
