If it seems to you like watches have always been in existence you aren't alone, there is surely nobody living today who remembers a time when there were no watches. Since the invention of the time keeping device there have many different styles and many new innovations. There are mechanical watches, quartz watches and the new kinetic types and more. These days companies generally are not working on new methods to show the time and any new innovations in the watch are usually to do with style. New releases that come out are essentially just a rehash of an old type. Sometimes, it is hard to comprehend that it wasn't really that long ago that this type of watch was actually invented.

The quartz watch is a type of watch that first came into the public interest in the early seventies. Quartz crystals are used to power it and it is still one of the most popular of all watches. Over the years it has improved a great deal and has many features including stopwatches and timers.

The first wristwatches were the analogue type, a type of watch that has individual hour, minute and second hands. These days most analogue watches wind back up automatically, though at one time they had to be wound back daily by the owner.

There are numerous other specialist watches used by the army and divers. These are watches that have been brought to the marketplace after being used by these groups, such as the Navy SEALS that first used the Luminox watches. These watches were perfect for the SEALS because it allowed them to check the time and many other functions under water. Of course these watches are also waterproof to a great depth.

Another great innovation of watches recently is the number of different features that you can get on them. Even some of the old style analog watches have started offering these newer features. Some of the more expensive watches also have stopwatches and display at the side of the face the month and date.

Watches are really becoming more and more known as a fashion accessory. Watches can be equipped with leather, metal, rubber and plastic straps. You can even go to a watchmaker's shop now and change the strap if you don't like the one it came with. Some sport watches make the stopwatch and timer the biggest feature and often have very flashy stopwatches where even lap times can be counted and sometimes saved.

These days watches just like home phones have been virtually replaced by the cell phone which can do everything a watch can do and more. Watches really need to be repackaged and probably the only way the watch can survive is by going back to the old times and selling self as an nice-looking fashion item..