1
00:00:00,240 --> 00:00:02,000
Speaker 1: The Day in History Class is a production of I

2
00:00:02,080 --> 00:00:07,680
Speaker 1: Heart Radio, Hello and welcome to this Day in History Class,

3
00:00:07,680 --> 00:00:10,959
Speaker 1: a show that winds its way through history one day

4
00:00:11,000 --> 00:00:15,080
Speaker 1: at a time. I'm Gabe Lousier, and today we're looking

5
00:00:15,120 --> 00:00:18,919
Speaker 1: at a breakthrough in portable timekeeping, a watch that ushered

6
00:00:18,920 --> 00:00:22,280
Speaker 1: in a wave of progress and was then promptly swept

7
00:00:22,320 --> 00:00:32,720
Speaker 1: away by it. The day was January third, seven, the

8
00:00:32,760 --> 00:00:36,879
Speaker 1: Hamilton's Watch Company introduced the first wrist watch powered by

9
00:00:36,880 --> 00:00:41,400
Speaker 1: a battery. The watch, known as the Hamilton's Electric five hundred,

10
00:00:41,680 --> 00:00:45,200
Speaker 1: was announced in style at an elaborate press conference held

11
00:00:45,240 --> 00:00:49,080
Speaker 1: at the Savoy Plaza Hotel in New York City. More

12
00:00:49,080 --> 00:00:51,839
Speaker 1: than a hundred and twenty reporters were on hand for

13
00:00:51,880 --> 00:00:54,760
Speaker 1: the event, and the watches press release was published in

14
00:00:54,800 --> 00:00:59,480
Speaker 1: more than five hundred newspapers nationwide. At the time, watch

15
00:00:59,560 --> 00:01:02,280
Speaker 1: the net ever needed winding, was like something out of

16
00:01:02,320 --> 00:01:06,880
Speaker 1: science fiction. Hamilton's leaned into that futuristic theme both for

17
00:01:06,920 --> 00:01:12,000
Speaker 1: the watches overall design and for its advertising campaign. Electric

18
00:01:12,080 --> 00:01:15,120
Speaker 1: watches were the wave of the future, and the Hamilton's

19
00:01:15,120 --> 00:01:18,880
Speaker 1: Watch Company was the first to get there. Humans have

20
00:01:18,959 --> 00:01:22,279
Speaker 1: been devising different ways to keep time since the dawn

21
00:01:22,280 --> 00:01:26,640
Speaker 1: of civilization, but no method proved as precise, reliable, and

22
00:01:26,720 --> 00:01:30,679
Speaker 1: intuitive to use as the mechanical clock. It rose to

23
00:01:30,720 --> 00:01:34,520
Speaker 1: prominence in the sixteenth century, and many variations on its

24
00:01:34,560 --> 00:01:39,840
Speaker 1: design soon followed, including smaller portable models called watches. But

25
00:01:39,920 --> 00:01:43,920
Speaker 1: through all those improvements and iterations, the inner workings of

26
00:01:43,959 --> 00:01:47,240
Speaker 1: mechanical clocks stayed more or less the same. They all

27
00:01:47,319 --> 00:01:50,640
Speaker 1: featured the same basic components and worked in similar ways.

28
00:01:51,160 --> 00:01:54,840
Speaker 1: For example, inside the average mechanical clock, you'll find a

29
00:01:54,880 --> 00:01:57,360
Speaker 1: gear train that's designed to turn the hands of the

30
00:01:57,360 --> 00:01:59,960
Speaker 1: clock at a precise rate in order to keep time.

31
00:02:00,680 --> 00:02:04,920
Speaker 1: That action is traditionally powered by one of two mechanical systems.

32
00:02:05,320 --> 00:02:07,760
Speaker 1: In a larger clock, the gears are driven by the

33
00:02:07,760 --> 00:02:11,040
Speaker 1: weight of a swinging pendulum, while in smaller clocks and

34
00:02:11,080 --> 00:02:14,160
Speaker 1: in wrist watches, the action is driven by a coiled

35
00:02:14,200 --> 00:02:17,720
Speaker 1: spring known as the main spring. The user would turn

36
00:02:17,760 --> 00:02:20,520
Speaker 1: a knob on the exterior casing in order to wind

37
00:02:20,600 --> 00:02:23,880
Speaker 1: up the spring, and then as it slowly unwound, it

38
00:02:23,919 --> 00:02:26,480
Speaker 1: would produce the energy needed to turn the gear train

39
00:02:26,680 --> 00:02:31,560
Speaker 1: and keep the watch running. That entirely mechanical system remained

40
00:02:31,639 --> 00:02:34,440
Speaker 1: the only way to power a clock or wrist watch

41
00:02:34,639 --> 00:02:39,480
Speaker 1: until the advent of electric batteries in the early nineteenth century. However,

42
00:02:39,840 --> 00:02:43,560
Speaker 1: it wasn't until the mid twentieth century the batteries could

43
00:02:43,560 --> 00:02:46,560
Speaker 1: finally be made small enough to fit inside a watch.

44
00:02:47,160 --> 00:02:50,600
Speaker 1: Once that advancement was made, watchmaker's race to be the

45
00:02:50,639 --> 00:02:54,040
Speaker 1: first to bring a battery powered watch to market. The

46
00:02:54,120 --> 00:02:57,880
Speaker 1: Hamilton Watch Company ultimately won that race in nineteen fifty

47
00:02:57,880 --> 00:03:01,680
Speaker 1: seven with the Hamilton Electric five trade, the first commercial

48
00:03:01,680 --> 00:03:05,320
Speaker 1: watch operated by a battery, or, as the company put it,

49
00:03:05,680 --> 00:03:09,080
Speaker 1: by an energy cell no larger than a shirt button.

50
00:03:09,960 --> 00:03:13,120
Speaker 1: It's worth noting, though, that while the Hamilton's watch was

51
00:03:13,200 --> 00:03:17,200
Speaker 1: powered by a battery, its inner workings were largely mechanical.

52
00:03:17,600 --> 00:03:21,120
Speaker 1: The old reliable gear train was still in there turning away,

53
00:03:21,520 --> 00:03:24,160
Speaker 1: only now it was driven by a battery instead of

54
00:03:24,200 --> 00:03:28,000
Speaker 1: by a mainspring. In that way, the Hamilton Electric was

55
00:03:28,080 --> 00:03:32,160
Speaker 1: a transitional time piece, a stepping stone between old school

56
00:03:32,160 --> 00:03:36,040
Speaker 1: mechanical watches and the digital quartz ones that would revolutionize

57
00:03:36,040 --> 00:03:39,680
Speaker 1: the industry less than a decade later. Although it's time

58
00:03:39,680 --> 00:03:43,240
Speaker 1: in the spotlight proved all too brief, the Hamiltons Electric

59
00:03:43,320 --> 00:03:46,119
Speaker 1: made a big splash when it arrived on store shelves.

60
00:03:46,600 --> 00:03:50,240
Speaker 1: The main appeal, of course, was the futuristic idea of

61
00:03:50,280 --> 00:03:53,800
Speaker 1: a watch that never needed winding, but the watches striking

62
00:03:53,840 --> 00:03:57,320
Speaker 1: design was a factor as well. Although Hamilton had played

63
00:03:57,320 --> 00:03:59,680
Speaker 1: it safe by launching the Electric five hundred with a

64
00:03:59,680 --> 00:04:03,600
Speaker 1: trade sational circular case, the company quickly released a number

65
00:04:03,640 --> 00:04:08,119
Speaker 1: of more radical styles, including the angular Art Deco influenced

66
00:04:08,200 --> 00:04:13,080
Speaker 1: Ventura model. There was no practical purpose for its unorthodox

67
00:04:13,200 --> 00:04:17,200
Speaker 1: asymmetrical shape, but it looked unlike anything else on the market,

68
00:04:17,440 --> 00:04:20,840
Speaker 1: lending further credence to the idea that electric watches were

69
00:04:20,880 --> 00:04:24,520
Speaker 1: the way of the future. The Ventura and several other

70
00:04:24,680 --> 00:04:28,160
Speaker 1: ultra modern Hamilton's designs were the work of a popular

71
00:04:28,240 --> 00:04:33,120
Speaker 1: automotive designer named Richard Arbib. He carefully coordinated all the

72
00:04:33,200 --> 00:04:37,760
Speaker 1: features of each watch he designed, ensuring that the strap, case, dial,

73
00:04:38,080 --> 00:04:42,240
Speaker 1: and hands all reflected a sense of vitality and progress.

74
00:04:43,080 --> 00:04:47,640
Speaker 1: Those qualities were especially attractive to forward looking celebrities such

75
00:04:47,680 --> 00:04:51,560
Speaker 1: as Elvis Presley. He famously wore his own Ventura watch

76
00:04:51,600 --> 00:04:54,880
Speaker 1: on the set of the ninety one film Blue Hawaii,

77
00:04:55,240 --> 00:04:58,760
Speaker 1: prompting many viewers to go out and buy one for themselves.

78
00:04:59,520 --> 00:05:03,279
Speaker 1: Another fan of the Ventura was Rod Serling, the creator

79
00:05:03,320 --> 00:05:05,800
Speaker 1: and host of The Twilight Zone. He could be seen

80
00:05:05,880 --> 00:05:09,560
Speaker 1: sporting the watch during many of the episodes introductions. The

81
00:05:09,600 --> 00:05:13,560
Speaker 1: watches retro futuristic design continues to pop up in sci

82
00:05:13,600 --> 00:05:17,400
Speaker 1: fi TV shows and movies to this very day, including

83
00:05:17,480 --> 00:05:20,640
Speaker 1: in all four films in the Men in Black series.

84
00:05:21,560 --> 00:05:25,559
Speaker 1: The Hamilton's Watch Company spent eleven years developing its first

85
00:05:25,600 --> 00:05:28,960
Speaker 1: electric watch and beat its competitors to market by just

86
00:05:29,080 --> 00:05:33,200
Speaker 1: a few months in some cases. Unfortunately, in its haste

87
00:05:33,240 --> 00:05:36,440
Speaker 1: to be the first, Hamilton's rushed into production before the

88
00:05:36,520 --> 00:05:40,520
Speaker 1: technology was fully ready. As a result, the Electric five

89
00:05:40,600 --> 00:05:44,880
Speaker 1: hundred was saddled with some serious issues. For starters. It's

90
00:05:45,040 --> 00:05:49,040
Speaker 1: much touted battery didn't last very long, so even though

91
00:05:49,080 --> 00:05:51,480
Speaker 1: you never had to wind it, you did have to

92
00:05:51,480 --> 00:05:55,200
Speaker 1: replace the battery fairly often. Being the first watch of

93
00:05:55,240 --> 00:05:58,599
Speaker 1: its kind led to other problems as well. For instance,

94
00:05:58,720 --> 00:06:02,680
Speaker 1: most watchmakers haven't been trained to service battery powered watches,

95
00:06:02,960 --> 00:06:05,960
Speaker 1: so if something broke down, it was often difficult to

96
00:06:06,040 --> 00:06:11,400
Speaker 1: have it repaired. All that said, Hamilton Electrics functioned well enough,

97
00:06:11,720 --> 00:06:14,479
Speaker 1: and over the course of twelve years the company managed

98
00:06:14,520 --> 00:06:17,880
Speaker 1: to sell about three hundred and fifty thousand of them.

99
00:06:17,920 --> 00:06:20,880
Speaker 1: In the end, it wasn't a flawed design that killed

100
00:06:20,920 --> 00:06:24,159
Speaker 1: the world's first electric watch. It was the introduction of

101
00:06:24,240 --> 00:06:28,719
Speaker 1: quartz crystals. By the late nineteen sixties, watchmakers had found

102
00:06:28,720 --> 00:06:31,880
Speaker 1: a way to use vibrating quartz crystals to regulate an

103
00:06:31,880 --> 00:06:36,240
Speaker 1: electric signal. That approach eliminated the need for the complex

104
00:06:36,279 --> 00:06:38,760
Speaker 1: gear trains that had long been a staple of both

105
00:06:38,800 --> 00:06:43,760
Speaker 1: mechanical and electric watches. Courts watches and clocks were still

106
00:06:43,800 --> 00:06:47,320
Speaker 1: powered by batteries, but their movements were much more precise

107
00:06:47,360 --> 00:06:51,000
Speaker 1: than mechanical ones. They were also cheaper to maintain and

108
00:06:51,080 --> 00:06:55,040
Speaker 1: required far less energy, which made the batteries last longer.

109
00:06:55,440 --> 00:06:59,960
Speaker 1: Electric watches simply couldn't compete, so in nineteen sixty nine,

110
00:07:00,040 --> 00:07:02,920
Speaker 1: Hamilton's throw in the towel and ended production of its

111
00:07:03,080 --> 00:07:07,400
Speaker 1: entire line. Later that year, though, the company rebounded by

112
00:07:07,400 --> 00:07:11,280
Speaker 1: moving its operations to Switzerland, where it joined the Swatch Group,

113
00:07:11,600 --> 00:07:15,880
Speaker 1: a luxury watch manufacturer that still produces Hamilton's watches today,

114
00:07:16,320 --> 00:07:20,720
Speaker 1: both mechanical and courts. In that way, even though it's

115
00:07:20,800 --> 00:07:24,280
Speaker 1: no longer the watch of the future, Hamilton's influence on

116
00:07:24,360 --> 00:07:29,840
Speaker 1: fashion and pop culture keeps right on ticket. I'm Gabe

117
00:07:29,840 --> 00:07:33,280
Speaker 1: Bluesier and hopefully you now know a little more about

118
00:07:33,320 --> 00:07:37,000
Speaker 1: history today than you did yesterday. If you'd like to

119
00:07:37,080 --> 00:07:40,480
Speaker 1: keep up with the show, you can follow us on Twitter, Facebook,

120
00:07:40,480 --> 00:07:44,720
Speaker 1: and Instagram at t d i HC Show, and if

121
00:07:44,720 --> 00:07:47,600
Speaker 1: you have any comments or suggestions, feel free to send

122
00:07:47,640 --> 00:07:52,160
Speaker 1: them my way at this Day at iHeart media dot com.

123
00:07:52,160 --> 00:07:54,840
Speaker 1: Thanks to Chandler Mays for producing the show, and thank

124
00:07:54,880 --> 00:07:57,640
Speaker 1: you for listening. I'll see you back here again tomorrow

125
00:07:57,920 --> 00:08:03,040
Speaker 1: for another Day in History. Class is intended the Kingdom

126
00:08:03,240 --> 00:08:04,680
Speaker 1: in the kind of d