A wristwatch is one of those things that captivated and defined us ever since we were little kids. At first, they were used “just” to tell and measure time. And when I say “just,” I mean it in the context of today’s world, where we have potato peelers and washing machines combined into one device.

More and more people today want their little machines, gadgets, and devices to perform multiple tasks at once. That’s why watchmakers decided to follow the trend and surprise us with increasingly wild, innovative, and sophisticated timepieces.

The golden age of watches was shaken up quite a bit when the Japanese first released digital watches with LCD screens. At first, many people scorned these (just like they did with Japanese cars when they flooded the global market), but today Japan is a benchmark for quality, reliability, manufacturing precision, and the most advanced technologies in any industry.

A wristwatch is a status symbol that defines a person’s position and social power, especially at the higher levels of the system. Some watches, much like their owners, are simply too eccentric and unique, using every opportunity to showcase the free spirit of their wearer. And those are exactly the ones I love—because I’ve never been one for rigid standards and "proven values."

The first clepsydra takes us back to ancient Egypt, somewhere around the 15th century BC. Egyptian pharaohs used a system of water vessels in which water dripped from one to the other to measure time. The whole year could be tracked using equal intervals and evenly spaced markings. This method was far superior to sundials, which were useless at night or when it was cloudy.

After 36 centuries, the clepsydra concept was resurrected in modern-day Switzerland—though reintroduced to the world in a completely new form. The idea may not be entirely revolutionary, but it still relies on the same postulate the clepsydra always has: water and gravity. A wristwatch with fluid driven by gravity? No way. Yet Lucien Vouillamoz is the man behind the patent for the modern clepsydra, which features two reservoirs at the ends of a shared capillary. Bellows connected to the main mechanism pump fluid that is separated by different molecular polarities, operating on a principle similar to magnetism. Patrick Berdoz was the one who financially supported the whole project, the patents, and the first prototypes. As they say, the rest is history...