Arizona republican., 1921-02-21
THE PESTERED
 TIMEPTECE.
By Frederick J. Hsskin

several hours a day, you are apt to get to your appointments ahead of time, but if you write on the typewriter, you are more apt to be late
 That is. if you wear your watch on your wrist as an increasing number of persons do. This transfer of the tinepiece from the pocket to the fore arm, according to watch experts, has subjected the instrument to new and trying vicissitudes.
 A watch expert outlined this situa5 ton and then opened a large silverSt watch and indicated the balance wheel < whirling two-thirds of the way around and then whirling back. That wheel. he explained. turns 300 times 0 minute, normally.
 When we test watches he said, ''we put them on racks and run them all day face up, and at night we check up on them. Then we test them with the dial down. and with the pendant up and with the pendant down. From the variation in time in these positions we regulate the watches, so that they will run at approximately 300 beats to the minute. But when We test the watch it is perfectly still. It is not vibrating, as it would be with the slightest motion of the body. and of course there is none of the sudden motion that comes every time you move your hand.
 Typina Retards Works
 ''So if the owner writes with a pen all day, and wears the watch on his right wrist, the jerking of the hand might increase the number of beats to 325 or even 35o If he writes on a typewriter. the beats might be retarded while he is working to 275. ',rhe principle is like this If you stir stick around in the water. the water swirls about. If you stir still 1 harder, it will whirl faster. But if l you suddenly stop stirring. and begin
 to jerk the stick up and down across the swirling circles their speed is inn mediately lessened by the conflicting motion.
 50 when you move your arm steadily in a direction that does not I tend to go against the motion of the l balance wheel the outside. vibration will make the wheel move faster. But
 if you swing your arm back and forth,
 as in tennis game, across the mo- tion of the wheel, it's normal rate may be retarded for the tirne-being to as low as 250 beats"
 II It would be impossible. this man says, to estimate how much the watch
 Of typist or a bricklayer, or violin
 ist would gain or lose because in-s dividual mannerisms and habits are too important a factor One man
 
 modic motions, while another is slower. Il and less sudden. Then too. weariness the degree of skill, and the emotions all may affect the way person moves his hands at different times to do the . same thing
 The government had tests made with
 wrist watches during the war, and ac- cepted for army use those that varied ,, not more than two minutes a day : Jewellers now quote this government ! standard for wrist watches. Most wrist watches. they say. keep some
 what better time than this. and a few will vary only a minute a week, bur i, a rate of only minute week is very unusual.
 To our inquiry as to whether any
 thing can be done regarding the hard
 lot of the modern watch, the expert
 sadly shook his head.
 Tho wrist watch is convenient Men , are coming to prefer 1t. And so long as
 accurate time Is not vital, I suppose t
 is just as satisfactory. What a man loses in accuracy when he carries his 2 tme-piece on his wrist he gains in
 convenience. so it really is more than s fashion that popularized the wrist 2 watch
 oo He went on to explain that there = is no need to bewail the good old days 6 when watch really told the time. . In spite of the way we mistreat our
 watches. we have just about as goo.l r time now as 30 years ago. That $
 because of improvements in watch ., making. The flat hair spring, for in r. stance. that used to tangle up every a time watch got dropped has been
 replaced by the Breguet hair spring I that doesn't tangle
 We look upon the wrist watch as 9 V recent innovation and a watch set into n a ring is regarded as truly novel r. idea. Yet history records the existence if of watches like these. and others more ' unusual several centuries hack. IT Historical Wrist Watches
 Queen Elizabeth received a wris, IT watch as a New Years gift in 1871.
 Whether it was a novelty then is not l. noted, but the watch is described as an
 'armlet or shakell of golde, all owe.
 dhmondes. haveing in the closing l. thearof clocke." The Earl of Leices- n ter made this gift. Some years later n he presented the queen with a gold s chain inset with diamonds and with q
 diamond studded "clocke" as a pen - dant.
 Elizabeth was fond of watches or le clocks as they were still called then le and had a large collection. The Ear 1f of Russell gave her a ring of gold sci l. with small diamonds and garnished y, round about with small rubies and twC
 
 le side a dyall.'
 l. It is written that Charles Y alsC l. had a watch in one of his rings anC n that skill in matchmaking had so ad
 vanced in his day that very smal
 watches keeping reasonably good tims d were set in heads of walking sticks, ii 'd bracelets and pendants and. other ar 'e ticles of personal adornment. W Men wore their timepieces swingins l. from their necks and women huns
 theirs from their girdles. A watch wa.
 a rare and costly possession in thos, to days-a sort of mark of gentility ", 1- are told.
 J. By ITO dandies were wearing tw, watches with heavy chains and seal II that hung on each side of their waist ,e coats. Women of fashion also approve t- this conceit but as the expense of keep o- ing two gorgeous timepieces was to S- great for most of them. the jeweller st; began making a dummy watch to 2 io with the real one on the other sid sS of the waist. Even these dummie oi were often beautiful and expensive it made in old shapes, with insets c
 jewels or engraved in elaborate pat
 terms.
 .o History seems to be repeating itse wa tNh faS La he