The Amazing Mr. Harwood

 By Bruce Shawkey

This is an article that appeared in a 1953 edition of Europa Star. It was a tribute to John Harwood, credited with the invention of the automatic wristwatch movement, in spite of the claims by Rolex. The article and the images are shown intact:

PIONEER OF THE AUTOMATIC WRISTWATCH 

In the spring of last year, a pioneer of the watchmaking industry died at the age of 71 in the modest house to which he had retired. As a tribute to this great man and to his disinterested efforts to improve watchmaking techniques, and in view of the fact that for a long time he entertained a business relationship with A. Schild and Fortis S.A. at Granges, we felt this occasion timely to remind our readers who he was and what was his life's work. 

Experience of the trenches

 The name of this English watchmaker first came to our ears around the year 1924, a name which seemed destined to pick up and carry on the torch of that old Anglo-Saxon watchmaking dynasty which saw Clement, Graham, Tompion, Mudge, Arnold, Earnshaw, Harrison and many others.  This was the year in which he obtained his first Swiss license, No. 106 583, which he took out with the intention of bringing improvements to the working of the wrist watches that had just made their appearance on the market.

It must have been while fighting in the trenches during the first World War that the deficiencies of the watches worn at the time dawned on him: and this is no doubt the reason why he set out to remedy the situation. He began to work on a system which would prevent water from entering into the watch's movement. The result was the model which is now known under the name of Harwood's Watch and which incorporated neither the key winding system that was current at the time nor the lateral winding mechanism of today. Setting was date by means of a revolving bezel while the mainspring was wound as a result of the wearer's arm motions by means of an automatic mechanism. This is how John Harwood came into the history of horology where he figures as the pioneer of automatic wristwatches. 

It may well give rise to some surprise today to find an invention of this kind in a field as specialized as watchmaking coming from abroad, at a time when the industry was essentially a Swiss preserve. However, although the automatic watch was invented in England, the only country where it stood a chance of finding a rapid application at an industrial basis was Switzerland where the watchmaking industry had at its disposal all the most recent plants and techniques. The "named" watch was launched by Fortis S.A. The first official contacts initiated between Mr. Harwood and A. Sehild S.A. date back to 1926. 

Here's another article that appeared in a 1965 issue of Europa Star, published near the time of his death in 1964:

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PIONEER OF THE AUTOMATIC WRISTWATCH 

In the spring of last year, John Harwood, a pioneer of the watchmaking industry, died at the age of 71 in the modest house to which he had retired. As a trihute to this great man and to his disinterested efforts to improve watchmaking techniques, we felt this occasion timely to remind our readers who he was and what was his life's work. 

The name of this English watchmaker first came to our ears around 1924, the year in which he obtained his first Swiss licence, which he took out with the intention of bringing improvements to the working of the wrist watches that had recently made their appearance on the market. 

It must have been while fighting in the trenches during the first World War that the deficiencies of the watches dawned on him. This is no doubt the reason why he set out to remedy the situation. He began to work on a system which would prevent water from entering into the watch's movement. The result wus the model which is now known under the name of Harwood's watch. 

The watch had no crown. Setting the time was accomplished by means of a revolving bezzel while the mainspring was wound as a result of the wearers arm movements. This is how John Harwood came into the history of horology where he figures as the pioneer of automatic wristwatches. It may well give rise to some surprise today to find an invention of this kind in a field as specialised as watchmaldng coming from abroad, at a time when the industry was essentially a Swiss preserve. However, although the automatic watch was invented in England, when most of the technology was coming out of Switzerland.

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Harwood did not not seek monetary reward for his invention; he only wanted to be recognized. Rolex essentially stole his idea for the automatic watch in the late '20s. It took until 1956 for Rolex to run a court-ordered apology to Harwood, giving him full credit as the inventor of the world's first automatic wristwatch. It wasn't much of an apology, but it was the best Harwood could have hoped for.