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Cycling & Time: Horology History
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03-08-2020 10:31am#1I was emailing a fellow cycling history enthusiast who lives in California and mentioned about the links between bicycles and watches. He kindly got in touch with a friend of his in Toronto who had given a paper at the 2019 International Cycle History Conference on this very subject.
Anyway, the guy in Toronto scanned the presentation paper and I received it as an attachment this morning. It contains some interesting horological information and will be of interest even if you've never ridden a bicycle.
It's seven pages so I may have to split it into several posts.
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I bought a facsimile copy of the Irish Cyclist & Athlete magazine January 1890, a special edition reviewing the premier cycle-trade exhibition the Stanley Show at the Crystal Palace in London.
Apparently the only watch related exhibitor was the Walker Watch Co. on stand No. 215
Scorching was a term used to describe riding at speed and a scorcher was someone, usually youthful and athletic, who engaged in this activity.
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Interesting how it was women who took to the convenience of the wristwatch long before men. You'd think the blokes would have thought hmmmm the memsaab knows her onions and try them too, but very very few did, though male cyclists were among the very first outside of the military. Somewhere on my hard drive or another I have a clipping from I think an American publication in the 1880s describing how some gentlemen cyclists were now using the lady's idea of the wristlet when out and about and how convenient it was. Oh and this wasn't dandyish behaviour at all at all. 😂 I'll try and find it.
And note how large her watch is, the irony being when "ladies" wristwatches came along later after the men's wristwatch gained favour you needed a feckin electron microscope to read the bloody time on them. Note too, her watch was designed to be a "wristlet" to be worn in a wrist holder from the outset, because the crown is at six not twelve and it's of a smaller size than the average pocketwatch.
Rejoice in the awareness of feeling stupid, for that’s how you end up learning new things. If you’re not aware you’re stupid, you probably are.
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