The earliest mention of the watch was in Shakespeares play As You Like It. In the second act of the play one character produces a sun-dial from his pocket and muses about the time. Though at this time in history a true, portable timekeeping piece would have been too much of a hassle. Coming up with a powers source for the watch was impossible at this time. But in the 1500s Peter Henlein from Germany created the first pocket watch. And from that point on portable timekeeping was part of the norm.

In the early 1600s, form watches came into being. Cases shaped like animals and objects and religious themed watches were the most popular. But cheap, portable clockswatchesdidnt really come into wide spread use until 1780 when Abraham Louis Perrelet invented the self winding movement.

Watch making enters its prime period in the years that followed. In 1791, J.F. Bautte founded the watch company that would eventually become Girard-Perregaux. In 1820, Thomas Prest registers a patent for the self-winding watch. In 1833 Antoine LeCoultre started his own watch making business that would eventually become Jaeger-LeCoultre.

Other big names and when they were founded:

Minerva founded in 1858
Heuer founded in 1860
Zenith founded in 1865
Movado founded in 1881
Rolex founded in 1905
Citizen founded in 1918
Seiko founded in 1924

But probably the most innovative and best-selling watch of all time is the Timex. Timex created the Waterbury pocket watch in the 1880s and made affordable timekeeping a mainstay for the average man.

By the turn of the twentieth century, the watch industry’s first and most successful mass marketer, Robert H. Ingersoll, worked with Waterbury Clock, a partner of Timex, to distribute the company’s Yankee pocket watch, the first to cost just one dollar. Twenty years later, with nearly forty million sold, the Yankee became the world’s largest seller and the watch that made the dollar famous. Everyone carried the Yankee: from Mark Twain to miners, from farmers to factory workers, from office clerks to sales clerks. Throughout the rest of the 20th Century, Timex conquered the low-end market selling 500 million watches by the end of the 1970s.

And the watch market has continued to grow and expand in the following years. With the introduction of the digital watch in 1972, watchmakers had brand new roads to explore in the area or portable timekeeping. It is now not so uncommon to find watches that can do everything under the sun from reading the wearers heart rate to playing music. But telling time is still the number-one priority.

So whether youre more interested in the fashion statement your watch makes (Rolex, Heuer, Seiko) or the practicality of your watch (Timex, Casio, Citizen), there will always be numerous choices out there.

Hey, anyone know what time it is? I think Im late.

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Allen Shaw is a successful author who provides tips and information on brand name watches and watches in general. I am the news director at USA News Network and have been working as freelance writer for 2 years. I’ve been published in a few magazines, newspapers and websites and my specialty up to this point has been movie and music reviews.

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Vintage or antique jewelry is worth a lot of money in most cases and it can get really expensive trying to acquire a collection. Actually with a little research and effort you can find antique jewelry wholesale just like any other product if you are willing to invest a little time.

The majority of the population would probably tell you to look on eBay or other online auction sites but the fact of the matter is that these really aren’t good sources for finding antique jewelry wholesale because the sellers at the sites usually know the value of what they are offering up for sale. There are other ways to find vintage jewelry at or even below wholesale so let’s take a look.

One very easy no cost way of finding antique jewelry wholesale is checking your local paper for garage sales, estate sales, and even divorce sales. In a lot of cases these people may have items that they don’t know the value of and your chances of finding something are great. It is very possible for you to pick up items worth thousands just buy rummaging through sales like these on a weekend.

When you are trying to pick up jewelry in this way don’t study the items too hard, you don’t want to give the hint to the owner that it may be worth a lot of money. The best thing to do is kind of glance over the items. Don’t feel bad about getting a good deal or feel like you are taking advantage of someone. If it was truly important to them they would have taken the time to have the item appraised. If all they want for something you are looking at is a quarter, give it to them and get out of there before the look of surprise and joy on your face gives it away!

Looking for jewelry in this way is a lot of fun, almost like being on a treasure hunt. You never know what you will find on these weekend excursions. I have found very valuable items in this way. I once found a vintage cedar hope chest worth hundreds of dollars that I paid $30 for! You can also give eBay a try, just bear in mind there thousands and thousands of other people doing the same thing!

Try misspellings to lessen the competition and have a better chance at getting the jewelry you are looking for at the lowest price possible.

Gregg Hall is an author and internet marketing consultant living in Navarre Florida. Find more about buying wholesale and jewelry wholesale at http://www.buywholesaleclub.com

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Jewelry styles in India are as varied as the regions, people and their culture. Jewelry-making is considered an art form, passed down through generations of artisans or karigars. These days, classical Indian styles are seeing a comeback with brand names houses and prominent designers heavily reviving and endorsing them.

Here is a look at some of the most famous regional styles of jewelry in India. There are probably many more exclusively regional styles, but these are well known all over India.

From Delhi

Mughal: This style of jewelry was brought to India by the Mughals and never went out of fashion. It is extremely ornate with a focus on elaborate designs heavily inspired by nature. Common motifs include flowers, leaves, vines, ambi (mango), birds, etc. Mughal style jewelry usually employs Jadau work, so these styles go hand in hand.

From Rajasthan

Kundan Jadau: This is a style of embossing or encrusting gemstones, usually kundan (a semi-opaque crystal) in the surrounding metal leaf. As mentioned above, this work is a part of the Mughal style of jewelry and is now a specialty of Jaipur artisans.

Meenakari: Another Rajasthani specialty, Meenakari is the art of enameling or fusing metal with different colored lacquers, usually red, blue or green.

Theva: This is a rare art, being revived by prominent Indian designers, in which gold is enameled onto glass. Red, blue or green foil below the glass highlights the gold for an exquisite look.

From Gujarat

Gheru: The Gheru style of Baroda is to give jewelry a beautiful dull red copper finish.

Pachchikam: A Gujarati specialty for generations, Pachchikam style involves holding together uncut semi-precious stones and glasswork by tiny metal claws (as opposed to the Kundan Jadau style of embedding or encrusting).

Polki: Gujarat jewelry made of uncut diamonds.

From Bengal

Filigree: A style in which patterns and designs are made with twisting thin silver wires. Also done in Orissa and Andhra Pradesh.

Navrattan: Traditional Bengali style jewelry comprised of nine gemstones ruby, emerald, sapphire, cats eye, coral, turquoise, pearl, opal and diamond.

From Tamil Nadu

Temple: Temple jewelry, a specialty of Nagercoil in South India, is elaborate chunky jewelry comprised of 22 karat gold and precious stones. This jewelry was traditionally made to adorn the idols of gods and goddesses in temples (hence, the name), and is now worn by Bharatnatyam and Kuchipudi dancers. The designs and motifs are nature inspired.

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