Time Claims Wristwatch One of the Inventions Came Out of WW1

5 surprising inventions to come out of World War I

 

Wristwatches

Uniforms for soldiers on the battlefield had to hold so many things that pocket watches lost their places. The solution was to adopt something that might have previously made troops turn up their noses. "[Wristwatches] existed before the war, but they were primarily worn by women because they were seen as jewelry," says Cart.

A watch for battle needed to be fairly large with luminous dials that could be seen in the dark. One example of such a timepiece, made by the Elgin National Watch Company of Elgin, Ill., is in the collection of the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History. The white numbers are covered in the radioactive substance radium so that they glow in the dark, while a shrapnel guard protects the fragile dial. Wristwatches were used to synchronize movements of artillery and tanks (another invention of World War I, originally designed for agricultural use but then outfitted with armor and guns to transport soldiers across the muddy no man's land).