116-674: Accurist Watches Ltd is an English watch manufacturer, headquartered in Leicestershire . The brand was established in 1946 in St John Street, Clerkenwell, London, by Asher and Rebecca Loftus. Accurist became the first company to sponsor the United Kingdom's speaking clock service between 1986 and 2008, and also sponsored a Millennium Countdown clock at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich , which counted down
232-415: A mainspring , and keeping time with an oscillating balance wheel . These are called mechanical watches . In the 1960s the electronic quartz watch was invented, which was powered by a battery and kept time with a vibrating quartz crystal . By the 1980s the quartz watch had taken over most of the market from the mechanical watch. Historically, this is called the quartz revolution (also known as
348-427: A pogrom . They were burned at the stake or expelled, and a marketplace was built over the former Jewish quarter. The plague returned to the city in 1405, 1435, 1437, 1482, 1494, 1520, and 1534. The largest growth of Nuremberg occurred in the 14th century. Charles IV 's Golden Bull of 1356 , naming Nuremberg as the city where newly elected kings of Germany must hold their first Imperial Diet, made Nuremberg one of
464-602: A "Watch Wristlet" design in 1893, but probably produced similar designs from the 1880s. Officers in the British Army began using wristwatches during colonial military campaigns in the 1880s, such as during the Anglo-Burma War of 1885. During the First Boer War of 1880–1881, the importance of coordinating troop movements and synchronizing attacks against highly mobile Boer insurgents became paramount, and
580-433: A bit drier whereas July tends to have more rainfall. Nuremberg has been a destination for immigrants. 50.1% of the residents had an immigrant background in 2022 (counted with MigraPro). Nuremberg for many people is still associated with its traditional gingerbread ( Lebkuchen ) products, sausages, and handmade toys. Pocket watches — Nuremberg eggs — were made here in the 16th century by Peter Henlein . Only one of
696-572: A blend of both. Most watches intended mainly for timekeeping today have electronic movements, with mechanical hands on the watch face indicating the time. Compared to electronic movements, mechanical watches are less accurate, often with errors of seconds per day; are sensitive to position, temperature, and magnetism; are costly to produce; require regular maintenance and adjustments; and are more prone to failures. Nevertheless, mechanical watches attract interest from consumers, particularly among watch collectors. Skeleton watches are designed to display
812-595: A centre of Nazi ideals. The 1934 rally was filmed by Leni Riefenstahl , and made into a propaganda film called Triumph des Willens ( Triumph of the Will ). At the 1935 rally, Hitler specifically ordered the Reichstag to convene at Nuremberg to pass the Nuremberg Laws which revoked German citizenship for all Jews and other non-Aryans. The Nazi Oberbürgermeister of the city, Willy Liebel , embarked upon
928-500: A continuous conurbation with the neighbouring cities of Fürth , Erlangen and Schwabach , which is the heart of an urban area region with around 1.4 million inhabitants, while the larger Nuremberg Metropolitan Region has a population of approximately 3.6 million. It is the largest city in the East Franconian dialect area (colloquially: "Franconian"; German: Fränkisch ). Nuremberg and Fürth were once connected by
1044-424: A decade – almost 100 years of dominance by the mechanical wristwatch legacy. Modern quartz movements are produced in very large quantities, and even the cheapest wristwatches typically have quartz movements. Whereas mechanical movements can typically be off by several seconds a day, an inexpensive quartz movement in a child's wristwatch may still be accurate to within half a second per day – ten times more accurate than
1160-418: A good third of German market research agencies are also located in the city. The Nuremberg International Toy Fair , held at the city's exhibition centre , is the largest of its kind in the world. Nuremberg is Bavaria 's second largest city after Munich , and a popular tourist destination for foreigners and Germans alike. It was a leading city 500 years ago, but 90% of the town was destroyed in 1945 during
1276-424: A leather strap, but by the early 20th century, manufacturers began producing purpose-built wristwatches. The Swiss company Dimier Frères & Cie patented a wristwatch design with the now standard wire lugs in 1903. In 1904, Louis Cartier produced a wristwatch to allow his friend Alberto Santos-Dumont to check flight performance in his airship while keeping both hands on the controls as this proved difficult with
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#17327985649591392-478: A line of wristwatches. The impact of the First World War of 1914–1918 dramatically shifted public perceptions on the propriety of the man's wristwatch and opened up a mass market in the postwar era. The creeping barrage artillery tactic, developed during the war, required precise synchronization between the artillery gunners and the infantry advancing behind the barrage. Service watches produced during
1508-492: A manner analogous to the pendulum of a pendulum clock . The tourbillon , an optional part for mechanical movements, is a rotating frame for the escapement, used to cancel out or reduce gravitational bias. Due to the complexity of designing a tourbillon, they are expensive, and typically found in prestigious watches. The pin-lever escapement (called the Roskopf movement after its inventor, Georges Frederic Roskopf ), which
1624-680: A mechanical movement. After a consolidation of the mechanical watch industry in Switzerland during the 1970s, mass production of quartz wristwatches took off under the leadership of the Swatch Group of companies, a Swiss conglomerate with vertical control of the production of Swiss watches and related products. For quartz wristwatches, subsidiaries of Swatch manufacture watch batteries ( Renata ), oscillators ( Oscilloquartz , now Micro Crystal AG) and integrated circuits (Ebauches Electronic SA, renamed EM Microelectronic-Marin ). The launch of
1740-494: A native of Nuremberg, created woodcuts of the first maps of the stars of the northern and southern hemispheres, producing the first printed star charts, which had been ordered by Johannes Stabius . Around 1515 Dürer also published the "Stabiussche Weltkarte", the first perspective drawing of the terrestrial globe. Printers and publishers have a long history in Nuremberg. Many of these publishers worked with well-known artists of
1856-459: A pocket watch. Cartier still markets a line of Santos-Dumont watches and sunglasses. In 1905, Hans Wilsdorf moved to London, and set up his own business, Wilsdorf & Davis, with his brother-in-law Alfred Davis, providing quality timepieces at affordable prices; the company became Rolex in 1915. Wilsdorf was an early convert to the wristwatch, and contracted the Swiss firm Aegler to produce
1972-481: A program of urban architectural renewal that he felt befitted one of the centers of Nazi pageantry. The aim was to restore the city center to the medieval look of centuries past by eliminating late nineteenth-century styling. Among the buildings he slated for demolition was the Grand Synagogue of Nuremberg . He felt that this "foreign" building with its Moorish revival architecture could not be reconciled with
2088-700: A replaceable battery . The first use of electrical power in watches was as a substitute for the mainspring, to remove the need for winding. The first electrically powered watch, the Hamilton Electric 500, was released in 1957 by the Hamilton Watch Company of Lancaster, Pennsylvania . Watch batteries (strictly speaking cells, as a battery is composed of multiple cells) are specially designed for their purpose. They are very small and provide tiny amounts of power continuously for very long periods (several years or more). In most cases, replacing
2204-549: A self-winding system as a separate module that could be used with almost any 8.75 ligne (19.74 millimeter) watch movement. Glycine incorporated this module into its watches in October 1930, and began mass-producing automatic watches. The Elgin National Watch Company and the Hamilton Watch Company pioneered the first electric watch . The first electric movements used a battery as a power source to oscillate
2320-400: A specific highly stable frequency, which is used to accurately pace a timekeeping mechanism. Most quartz movements are primarily electronic but are geared to drive mechanical hands on the face of the watch to provide a traditional analog display of the time, a feature most consumers still prefer. In 1959 Seiko placed an order with Epson (a subsidiary company of Seiko and the 'brain' behind
2436-414: A strong standing in the markets of Central and Eastern Europe. Items manufactured in the area include electrical equipment, mechanical and optical products, motor vehicles, writing and drawing paraphernalia, stationery products and printed materials. The city is also strong in the fields of automation, energy and medical technology. Siemens is still the largest industrial employer in the Nuremberg region but
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#17327985649592552-505: A two Michelin Star -rated restaurant, Essigbrätlein. Like many European cities, Nuremberg offers a pedestrian-only zone covering a large portion of the old town, which is a main destination for shopping and specialty retail, including year-round Christmas stores where tourists and locals alike can purchase Christmas ornaments , gifts, decorations, and additions to their toy Christmas villages . The Craftsmen's Courtyard, or Handwerkerhof,
2668-431: A winding, requiring winding daily, some run for several days; a few have 192-hour mainsprings, requiring once-weekly winding. A self-winding or automatic watch is one that rewinds the mainspring of a mechanical movement by the natural motions of the wearer's body. The first self-winding mechanism was invented for pocket watches in 1770 by Abraham-Louis Perrelet, but the first " self-winding ", or "automatic", wristwatch
2784-402: A wristwatch, described as an "armed watch", from Robert Dudley . The oldest surviving wristwatch (then described as a "bracelet watch") is one made in 1806, and given to Joséphine de Beauharnais . From the beginning, wristwatches were almost exclusively worn by women – men used pocket watches up until the early 20th century. In 1810, the watch-maker Abraham-Louis Breguet made a wristwatch for
2900-440: Is a cheaper version of the fully levered movement, was manufactured in huge quantities by many Swiss manufacturers, as well as by Timex , until it was replaced by quartz movements. Introduced by Bulova in 1960, tuning-fork watches use a type of electromechanical movement with a precise frequency (most often 360 Hz ) to drive a mechanical watch. The task of converting electronically pulsed fork vibration into rotary movements
3016-419: Is a fusion between a regular mechanical watch and a smartwatch. The movement and case are the basic parts of a watch. A watch band or bracelet is added to form a wristwatch; alternatively, a watch chain is added to form a pocket watch. The case is the outer covering of the watch. The case back is the back portion of the watch's case. Accessing the movement (such as during battery replacement) depends on
3132-471: Is another tourist shopping destination in the style of a medieval village. It houses several local family-run businesses which sell handcrafted items from glass , wood , leather , pottery , and precious metals . The Handwerkerhof is also home to traditional German restaurants and beer gardens. The Pedestrian zones of Nuremberg host festivals and markets throughout the year, the best known being Christkindlesmarkt , Germany's largest Christmas market and
3248-630: Is claimed to be accurate to +/− 10 seconds a year and has a smooth sweeping second hand rather than one that jumps each second. Radio time signal watches are a type of electronic quartz watch that synchronizes ( time transfers ) its time with an external time source such as in atomic clocks , time signals from GPS navigation satellites, the German DCF77 signal in Europe, WWVB in the US, and others. Movements of this type may, among others, synchronize
3364-409: Is designed to be worn around the wrist , attached by a watch strap or other type of bracelet , including metal bands, leather straps, or any other kind of bracelet. A pocket watch is designed for a person to carry in a pocket , often attached to a chain. Watches appeared in the 16th century. During most of its history, the watch was a mechanical device, driven by clockwork , powered by winding
3480-474: Is done via two tiny jeweled fingers, called pawls. Tuning-fork watches were rendered obsolete when electronic quartz watches were developed. Traditional mechanical watch movements use a spiral spring called a mainspring as its power source that must be rewound periodically by the user by turning the watch crown. Antique pocket watches were wound by inserting a key into the back of the watch and turning it. While most modern watches are designed to run 40 hours on
3596-417: Is influenced by its inland position and higher altitude. Winters are changeable, with either mild or cold weather: the average temperature is around −3 °C (27 °F) to 4 °C (39 °F), while summers are generally warm, mostly around 13 °C (55 °F) at night to 25 °C (77 °F) in the afternoon. Precipitation is evenly spread throughout the year, although February and April tend to be
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3712-529: The Großen Freiheitsbrief ('Great Charter of Freedom'), including town rights , Imperial immediacy ( Reichsfreiheit ), the privilege to mint coins, and an independent customs policy – almost wholly removing the city from the purview of the burgraves. Nuremberg soon became, with Augsburg , one of the two great trade-centers on the route from Italy to Northern Europe. In 1298, the Jews of
3828-703: The Bavarian Ludwig Railway , the first steam-hauled and overall second railway opened in Germany (1835). Today, the U1 of the Nuremberg Subway runs along this route. Subway lines U2 and U3 are the first German driverless subway lines, automatically moving railcars. Nuremberg Airport ( Flughafen Nürnberg "Albrecht Dürer" ) is the second-busiest airport in Bavaria after Munich Airport , and
3944-520: The Fugger and Welser families from Augsburg , although on a slightly smaller scale. The state of affairs in the early 16th century , increased trade routes elsewhere and the ossification of the social hierarchy and legal structures contributed to the decline in trade. During the Thirty Years' War , frequent quartering of Imperial, Swedish and League soldiers, the financial costs of the war and
4060-551: The Nuremberg rallies . The rallies were held in 1927, 1929 and annually from 1933 through 1938. A number of buildings and large gathering areas known collectively as the Nazi Party Rally Grounds , some of which were not finished, were designed by Albert Speer and were constructed solely for these assemblies. After Adolf Hitler's rise to power in 1933 the Nuremberg rallies became huge Nazi propaganda events,
4176-643: The Observatory of Neuchâtel in 1967. In 1970, 18 manufacturers exhibited production versions of the beta 21 wristwatch, including the Omega Electroquartz as well as Patek Philippe , Rolex Oysterquartz and Piaget . The first quartz watch to enter production was the Seiko 35 SQ Astron , which hit the shelves on 25 December 1969, swiftly followed by the Swiss Beta 21, and then a year later
4292-811: The Rhine–Main–Danube Canal , that connects the North Sea to the Black Sea . Lying in the Bavarian administrative region of Middle Franconia , it is the largest city and unofficial capital of the entire cultural region of Franconia . The city is surrounded on three sides by the Nürnberger Reichswald [ de ] , a large forest, and in the north lies Knoblauchsland [ de ] ( garlic land ), an extensive vegetable growing area and cultural landscape. The city forms
4408-651: The Staatsphilharmonie Nürnberg , is Bavaria's second-largest opera orchestra after the Bavarian State Opera 's Bavarian State Orchestra in Munich. Nuremberg is the birthplace of Albrecht Dürer and Johann Pachelbel . 1. FC Nürnberg is the most famous football club of the city and one of the most successful football clubs in Germany . Nuremberg was one of the host cities of the 2006 FIFA World Cup . The first documentary mention of
4524-643: The War of the Austrian Succession and the Seven Years' War and restrictions of imports and exports deprived the city of many markets for its manufactures. The Bavarian elector, Charles Theodore , appropriated part of the land obtained by the city during the Landshut War of Succession , to which Bavaria had maintained its claim; Prussia also claimed part of the territory. Realising its weakness,
4640-416: The advance of French troops required their removal to Regensburg and thence to Vienna . In 1349 the members of the guilds unsuccessfully rebelled against the patricians in a Handwerkeraufstand ('Craftsmen's Uprising'), supported by merchants and some by councillors, leading to a ban on any self-organisation of the artisans in the city, abolishing the guilds that were customary elsewhere in Europe;
4756-655: The quartz watch in 1969 in the form of the Seiko Astron 35SQ , and in 1970 in the form of the Omega Beta 21 was a revolutionary improvement in watch technology. In place of a balance wheel, which oscillated at perhaps 5 or 6 beats per second, these devices used a quartz-crystal resonator , which vibrated at 8,192 Hz, driven by a battery-powered oscillator circuit . Most quartz-watch oscillators now operate at 32,768 Hz, though quartz movements have been designed with frequencies as high as 262 kHz. Since
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4872-537: The second Black Death pandemic in 1437, and the First Margrave War (1449–1450) led to a severe fall in population in the mid-15th century. Siding with Albert IV , Duke of Bavaria-Munich , in the War of the Succession of Landshut of 1503–1505, led the city to gain substantial territory, resulting in lands of 25 sq mi (64.7 km ), making it one of the largest imperial cities. During
4988-495: The 16th century beginning in the German cities of Nuremberg and Augsburg , were transitional in size between clocks and watches. Nuremberg clockmaker Peter Henlein (or Henle or Hele) (1485–1542) is often credited as the inventor of the watch. However, other German clockmakers were creating miniature timepieces during this period, and there is no evidence Henlein was the first. Watches were not widely worn in pockets until
5104-468: The 17th century. One account suggests that the word "watch" came from the Old English word woecce – which meant "watchman" – because town watchmen used the technology to keep track of their shifts at work. Another says that the term came from 17th-century sailors, who used the new mechanisms to time the length of their shipboard watches (duty shifts). A rise in accuracy occurred in 1657 with
5220-468: The 1980s, more quartz watches than mechanical ones have been marketed. The Timex Datalink wristwatch was introduced in 1994. The early Timex Datalink Smartwatches realized a wireless data transfer mode to receive data from a PC. Since then, many companies have released their own iterations of a smartwatch, such as the Apple Watch , Samsung Galaxy Watch , and Huawei Watch . A hybrid smartwatch
5336-659: The Austrian House of Raabs . With the extinction of their male line around 1189, the last Raabs count's son-in-law, Frederick I of the House of Hohenzollern , inherited the burgraviate in 1193. From the late 12th century to the Interregnum (1254–1573), however, the power of the burgraves diminished as the Hohenstaufen emperors transferred most non-military powers to a castellan, with the city administration and
5452-699: The CEH research laboratory in Neuchâtel , Switzerland. From 1965 through 1967 pioneering development work was done on a miniaturized 8192 Hz quartz oscillator, a thermo-compensation module, and an in-house-made, dedicated integrated circuit (unlike the hybrid circuits used in the later Seiko Astron wristwatch). As a result, the BETA 1 prototype set new timekeeping performance records at the International Chronometric Competition held at
5568-865: The Middle Ages, Nuremberg fostered a rich, varied, and influential literary culture. The cultural flowering of Nuremberg in the 15th and 16th centuries made it the centre of the German Renaissance . In 1525 Nuremberg accepted the Protestant Reformation , and in 1532 the Nuremberg Religious Peace was signed there, preventing war between Lutherans and Catholics for 15 years. During the Princes' 1552 revolution against Charles V , Nuremberg tried to purchase its neutrality, but Margrave Albert Alcibiades , one of
5684-578: The Nurnberg Card which allows for free use of public transportation and free entry to all museums and attractions in Nuremberg for a two-day period. Notable foods available in the city include lebkuchen , gingerbread , local beer , Schäufele , and Nürnberger Rostbratwürstchen , or Nuremberg grilled sausages. There are hundreds of restaurants for all tastes, including traditional Franconian restaurants and beer gardens . It also has vegan , vegetarian and organic restaurants. Nuremberg boasts
5800-537: The Queen of Naples. The first Swiss wristwatch was made in the year 1868 by the Swiss watch-maker Patek Philippe for Countess Koscowicz of Hungary. Wristwatches were first worn by military men towards the end of the 19th century, having increasingly recognized the importance of synchronizing maneuvers during war without potentially revealing plans to the enemy through signaling. The Garstin Company of London patented
5916-551: The addition of the balance spring to the balance wheel, an invention disputed both at the time and ever since between Robert Hooke and Christiaan Huygens . This innovation increased watches' accuracy enormously, reducing error from perhaps several hours per day to perhaps 10 minutes per day, resulting in the addition of the minute hand to the face from around 1680 in Britain and around 1700 in France. The increased accuracy of
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#17327985649596032-497: The anti-Jewish pogrom known as Kristallnacht on 10 November 1938, the two remaining synagogues and numerous Jewish-owned shops were burned to the ground. Of the 91 Jews in Germany who met their deaths as a result of Kristallnacht , 26 (including ten suicides) were in Nuremberg. Between 2,000 and 3,000 of Nuremberg's Jews fled from Germany. By 1941, only about 1.800 remained, over 1,600 of whom were rounded-up and transported to various extermination camps where they were killed. At
6148-685: The application of duplicating tools and machinery in 1843. In the United States , Aaron Lufkin Dennison started a factory in 1851 in Massachusetts that used interchangeable parts , and by 1861 a successful enterprise operated, incorporated as the Waltham Watch Company . The concept of the wristwatch goes back to the production of the very earliest watches in the 16th century. In 1571, Elizabeth I of England received
6264-494: The balance assembly delivered the power to the balance wheel. Similar designs from many other watch companies followed. Another type of electric watch was developed by the Bulova company that used a tuning-fork resonator instead of a traditional balance wheel to increase timekeeping accuracy, moving from a typical 2.5–4 Hz with a traditional balance wheel to 360 Hz with the tuning-fork design. The commercial introduction of
6380-525: The balance wheel and the escapement for accuracy by laser . The low parts count and the fully automated assembly make it an inexpensive automatic Swiss watch. Electronic movements, also known as quartz movements, have few or no moving parts, except a quartz crystal which is made to vibrate by the piezoelectric effect . A varying electric voltage is applied to the crystal, which responds by changing its shape so, in combination with some electronic components, it functions as an oscillator . It resonates at
6496-409: The balance wheel focused attention on errors caused by other parts of the movement , igniting a two-century wave of watchmaking innovation. The first thing to be improved was the escapement . The verge escapement was replaced in quality watches by the cylinder escapement , invented by Thomas Tompion in 1695 and further developed by George Graham in the 1720s. Improvements in manufacturing – such as
6612-482: The balance wheel. During the 1950s, Elgin developed the model 725, while Hamilton released two models: the first, the Hamilton 500, released on 3 January 1957, was produced into 1959. This model had problems with the contact wires misaligning, and the watches returned to Hamilton for alignment. The Hamilton 505, an improvement on the 500, proved more reliable: the contact wires were removed and a non-adjustable contact on
6728-420: The battery requires a trip to a watch-repair shop or watch dealer; this is especially true for watches that are water-resistant, as special tools and procedures are required for the watch to remain water-resistant after battery replacement. Silver-oxide and lithium batteries are popular today; mercury batteries, formerly quite common, are no longer used, for environmental reasons. Cheap batteries may be alkaline, of
6844-485: The cessation of trade caused irreparable damage to the city and a near-halving of the population. In 1632, the city, occupied by the forces of Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden , was besieged by the army of Imperial general Albrecht von Wallenstein . The city declined after the war and recovered its importance only in the 19th century, when it grew as an industrial centre. Even after the Thirty Years' War, however, there
6960-619: The city asked to be incorporated into Prussia but Frederick William II refused, fearing to offend Austria, Russia and France. At the Imperial diet in 1803, the independence of Nuremberg was affirmed, but on the signing of the Confederation of the Rhine on 12 July 1806, it was agreed to hand the city over to Bavaria from 8 September, with Bavaria guaranteeing the amortisation of the city's 12.5 million guilder public debt. After
7076-407: The city was rebuilt after the war and was to some extent restored to its pre-war appearance, including the reconstruction of many of its medieval buildings. Much of this reconstructive work and conservation was done by the organisation ' Old Town Friends Nuremberg '. Today 25% of Nürnbergs buildings date to before World War II and the old town is a declared protected area, so the northeastern half of
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#17327985649597192-427: The city, for example Grossgründlach , Kraftshof , Thon , and Neunhof in the north-west; Ziegelstein in the northeast, Altenfurt and Fischbach in the south-east; and Katzwang , Kornburg in the south. Langwasser is a modern suburb. Nuremberg has an oceanic climate ( Köppen Cfb ) with a certain humid continental influence ( Dfb ), categorized in the latter by the 0 °C isotherm. The city's climate
7308-594: The city, in 1050, mentions Nuremberg as the location of an imperial castle between East Francia and the Margraviate of the Nordgau of Bavaria . From 1050 to 1572 the city expanded and rose dramatically in importance due to its location on key trade-routes. King Conrad III , reigning as King of Germany from 1137 to 1152, established the Burgraviate of Nuremberg , with the first burgraves coming from
7424-484: The city, including historic tours, those that are Nazi -focused, underground and night tours, walking tours , sightseeing buses, self guided tours, and an old town tour on a mini train. Nuremberg also offers several parks and green areas, as well as indoor activities such as bowling , rock wall climbing , escape rooms , cart racing , and mini golf , theaters and cinemas, pools and thermal spas . There are also six nearby amusement parks . The city's tourism board sells
7540-418: The city. After fire destroyed the castle in 1420 during a feud between Frederick IV (from 1417, Margrave of Brandenburg ) and the duke of Bavaria-Ingolstadt , the city purchased the ruins and the forest belonging to the castle (1427), resulting in the city's total sovereignty within its borders. Through these and other acquisitions the city accumulated considerable territory. The Hussite Wars (1419–1434),
7656-541: The coming years. There are over 175 registered places of accommodation in Nuremberg, ranging from hostels to luxury hotels , bed and breakfasts , to multi-hundred room properties. Nuremberg was an early centre of humanism, science, printing, and mechanical invention. The city contributed much to the science of astronomy . In 1471 Johannes Mueller of Königsberg (Bavaria), later called Regiomontanus , built an astronomical observatory in Nuremberg and published many important astronomical charts. In 1515, Albrecht Dürer ,
7772-713: The day to produce books that could also be considered works of art. In 1470 Anton Koberger opened Europe's first print shop in Nuremberg. In 1493, he published the Nuremberg Chronicles , also known as the World Chronicles ( Schedelsche Weltchronik ), an illustrated history of the world from the creation to the present day. It was written in the local Franconian dialect by Hartmann Schedel and had illustrations by Michael Wohlgemuth , Wilhelm Pleydenwurff , and Albrecht Dürer. Others furthered geographical knowledge and travel by map making. Notable among these
7888-608: The decades progressed and the efficiency of the solar cells increased while the power requirements of the movement and display decreased, solar watches began to be designed to look like other conventional watches. A rarely used power source is the temperature difference between the wearer's arm and the surrounding environment (as applied in the Citizen Eco-Drive Thermo). Nuremberg Nuremberg ( / ˈ nj ʊər ə m b ɜːr ɡ / NURE -əm-burg ; German: Nürnberg [ˈnʏʁnbɛʁk] ; in
8004-429: The different types of tourbillon , are sometimes included. Most electronic quartz watches, on the other hand, include time-related features such as timers , chronographs , and alarm functions. Furthermore, some modern watches (like smart watches) even incorporate calculators , GPS and Bluetooth technology or have heart-rate monitoring capabilities, and some of them use radio clock technology to regularly correct
8120-492: The district of Rezatkreis (named for the river Franconian Rezat ), which was renamed to Middle Franconia ( German : Mittelfranken ) on 1 January 1838. The first German railway, the Bavarian Ludwigsbahn , from Nuremberg to nearby Fürth , was opened in 1835. The establishment of railways and the incorporation of Bavaria into Zollverein (the 19th-century German Customs Union), commerce and industry opened
8236-433: The districts in the 1797–1801 sample was early industrial; the economic structure of the region around Nuremberg was dominated by metal and glass manufacturing, reflected by a share of nearly 50% handicrafts and workers. In the 19th century Nuremberg became the "industrial heart" of Bavaria with companies such as Siemens and MAN establishing a strong base in the city. Nuremberg is still an important industrial centre with
8352-564: The end of the war in 1945, there were no Jews left in Nuremberg. There are many Stolpersteine installed in the streets of the city; these commemorate Jews who were persecuted by the Nazi regime. During the Second World War , Nuremberg was the headquarters of Wehrkreis (military district) XIII, and an important site for military production, including aircraft, submarines, and tank engines. A subcamp of Flossenbürg concentration camp
8468-417: The fall of Napoleon , the city's trade and commerce revived; the skill of its inhabitants together with its favourable situation soon made the city prosperous, particularly after its public debt had been acknowledged as a part of the Bavarian national debt. Having been incorporated into a Catholic country, the city was compelled to refrain from further discrimination against Catholics, who had been excluded from
8584-458: The gingerbread capital of the world. Visitors to the Christmas market can peruse the hundreds of stalls and purchase local wood crafts and nutcrackers while sampling Christmas sweets and traditional Glühwein . In 2017, Nuremberg saw a total of 3.3 million overnight stays, a record for the town, and is expected to have surpassed that in 2018, with more growth in tourism anticipated in
8700-598: The image that he strove to create, and he succeeded in having the building completely demolished around the time of the Party rally in September 1938. Many examples of Nazi architecture can still be seen in the city. The city was also the headquarters of the Nazi propagandist Julius Streicher , the Nazi Party Gauleiter of Franconia , a vicious antisemite and the publisher of Der Stürmer . During
8816-433: The last 1,000 days before the year 2000 at the historic observatory . The Loftus family maintained ownership of the company until 2014 when Time Products Limited, which operate Sekonda and Limit, acquired the brand. Watch A watch is a portable timepiece intended to be carried or worn by a person. It is designed to keep a consistent movement despite the motions caused by the person's activities. A wristwatch
8932-697: The leaders of the revolt, attacked the city without a declaration of war and dictated a disadvantageous peace. At the 1555 Peace of Augsburg , the possessions of the Protestants were confirmed by the Emperor, their religious privileges extended and their independence from the Bishop of Bamberg affirmed, while the 1520s' secularisation of the monasteries was also approved. Families like the Tucher , Imhoff or Haller ran trading businesses across Europe, similar to
9048-705: The local East Franconian dialect: Nämberch [ˈnɛmbɛrç] ) is the largest city in Franconia , the second-largest city in the German state of Bavaria , and its 544,414 (2023) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest city in Germany. Nuremberg sits on the Pegnitz , which carries the name Regnitz from its confluence with the Rednitz in Fürth onwards ( Pegnitz → Regnitz → Main → Rhine → North Sea ), and on
9164-405: The mechanism for aesthetic purposes. A mechanical movement uses an escapement mechanism to control and limit the unwinding and winding parts of a spring, converting what would otherwise be a simple unwinding into a controlled and periodic energy release. The movement also uses a balance wheel , together with the balance spring (also known as a hairspring), to control the gear system's motion in
9280-587: The most frequent sites of the Imperial Diet (after Regensburg and Frankfurt ), the Diets of Nuremberg from 1211 to 1543, after the first Nuremberg diet elected Frederick II as emperor. Because of the many Diets of Nuremberg, the city became an important routine place of the administration of the Empire during this time and a somewhat 'unofficial capital ' of the Empire. In 1219 Emperor Frederick II granted
9396-413: The municipal courts handed over to an Imperial mayor (German: Reichsschultheiß ) from 1173/74. The strained relations between the burgraves and the castellans, with gradual transferral of powers to the latter in the late 14th and early 15th centuries, finally broke out into open enmity, which greatly influenced the history of the city. The city and particularly Nuremberg Castle would become one of
9512-613: The new SWATCH brand in 1983 was marked by bold new styling, design, and marketing. Today, the Swatch Group maintains its position as the world's largest watch company. Seiko 's efforts to combine the quartz and mechanical movements bore fruit after 20 years of research, leading to the introduction of the Seiko Spring Drive , first in a limited domestic market production in 1999 and to the world in September 2005. The Spring Drive keeps time within quartz standards without
9628-633: The newly founded University of Technology Nuremberg . The Nuremberg exhibition centre ( Messe Nürnberg ) is one of the biggest convention center companies in Germany and operates worldwide. Nuremberg Castle , its medieval old town and the city's walls , with their many towers, are among the most impressive in Europe. Staatstheater Nürnberg is one of the five Bavarian state theatres, showing operas , operettas , musicals , and ballets (main venue: Nuremberg Opera House ), plays (main venue: Schauspielhaus Nürnberg ), as well as concerts (main venue: Meistersingerhalle ). Its orchestra,
9744-594: The old Imperial Free City had to be largely reconstructed. Between 1945 and 1946, German officials involved in war crimes and crimes against humanity were brought before an international tribunal in the Nuremberg trials. The Soviet Union had wanted these trials to take place in Berlin . However, Nuremberg was chosen as the site for the trials for specific reasons: Following the trials, in October 1946, many prominent German Nazi politicians and military leaders were executed in Nuremberg . The same courtroom in Nuremberg
9860-479: The prototype of one of the world's most accurate wristwatches to date: the Omega Marine Chronometer . Since the technology having been developed by contributions from Japanese, American and Swiss, nobody could patent the whole movement of the quartz wristwatch, thus allowing other manufacturers to participate in the rapid growth and development of the quartz watch market. This ended – in less than
9976-532: The quartz crisis in Switzerland ). Developments in the 2010s include smart watches , which are elaborate computer-like electronic devices designed to be worn on a wrist. They generally incorporate timekeeping functions, but these are only a small subset of the smartwatch's facilities. In general, modern watches often display the day, date, month, and year. For mechanical watches, various extra features called " complications ", such as moon-phase displays and
10092-540: The quartz revolution) to start developing a quartz wristwatch. The project was codenamed 59A. By the 1964 Tokyo Summer Olympics , Seiko had a working prototype of a portable quartz watch which was used as the time measurements throughout the event. The first prototypes of an electronic quartz wristwatch (not just portable quartz watches as the Seiko timekeeping devices at the Tokyo Olympics in 1964) were made by
10208-569: The rechargeable battery or capacitor. As long as the watch is regularly exposed to fairly strong light (such as sunlight), it never needs a battery replacement. Some models need only a few minutes of sunlight to provide weeks of energy (as in the Citizen Eco-Drive ). Some of the early solar watches of the 1970s had innovative and unique designs to accommodate the array of solar cells needed to power them (Synchronar, Nepro, Sicura, and some models by Cristalonic, Alba , Seiko, and Citizen). As
10324-593: The rights of citizenship. Catholic services had been celebrated in the city by the priests of the Teutonic Order , often under great difficulties. After their possessions had been confiscated by the Bavarian government in 1806, they were given the Frauenkirche on the Market in 1809; in 1810 the first Catholic parish was established, which in 1818 numbered 1,010 people. In 1817, the city was incorporated into
10440-405: The same size as silver-oxide cells but providing shorter life. Rechargeable batteries are used in some solar-powered watches . Some electronic watches are powered by the movement of the wearer. For instance, Seiko's kinetic-powered quartz watches use the motion of the wearer's arm: turning a rotating weight which causes a tiny generator to supply power to charge a rechargeable battery that runs
10556-492: The single most important technological breakthrough, though invented by Thomas Mudge in 1754 and improved by Josiah Emery in 1785, only gradually came into use from about 1800 onwards, chiefly in Britain. The British predominated in watch manufacture for much of the 17th and 18th centuries, but maintained a system of production that was geared towards high-quality products for the élite. The British Watch Company modernized clock manufacture with mass-production techniques and
10672-552: The tenth-busiest airport in the country. Institutions of higher education in Nuremberg include the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg ( Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg ), Germany's 11th-largest university, with campuses in Erlangen and Nuremberg and a university hospital in Erlangen (Universitätsklinikum Erlangen), Technische Hochschule Nürnberg Georg Simon Ohm , Hochschule für Musik Nürnberg and
10788-587: The three most important cities of the Empire. Charles was the patron of the Frauenkirche , built between 1352 and 1362 (the architect was likely Peter Parler ), where the Imperial court worshipped during its stays in Nuremberg. The royal and Imperial connection grew stronger in 1423 when the Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund of Luxembourg granted the Imperial regalia to be kept permanently in Nuremberg, where they remained until 1796, when
10904-406: The time of day and the date, the leap-year status and the state of daylight saving time (on or off). However, other than the radio receiver, these watches are normal quartz watches in all other aspects. Electronic watches require electricity as a power source, and some mechanical movements and hybrid electronic-mechanical movements also require electricity. Usually, the electricity is provided by
11020-431: The time. Most watches that are used mainly for timekeeping have quartz movements. However, expensive collectible watches, valued more for their elaborate craftsmanship, aesthetic appeal, and glamorous design than for simple timekeeping, often have traditional mechanical movements, despite being less accurate and more expensive than their electronic counterparts. As of 2018, the most expensive watch ever sold at auction
11136-515: The tooth-cutting machine devised by Robert Hooke – allowed some increase in the volume of watch production, although finishing and assembling was still done by hand until well into the 19th century. A major cause of error in balance-wheel timepieces, caused by changes in elasticity of the balance spring from temperature changes, was solved by the bimetallic temperature-compensated balance wheel invented in 1765 by Pierre Le Roy and improved by Thomas Earnshaw (1749–1829). The lever escapement ,
11252-403: The town were accused of host desecration and 698 of them were killed in one of the many Rintfleisch massacres . Behind the massacre of 1298 was also the desire to combine the northern and southern parts of the city, which were divided by the Pegnitz . The Jews of the German lands suffered many massacres during the plague pandemic of the mid-14th century. In 1349, Nuremberg's Jews suffered
11368-416: The type of case back, which are generally categorized into four types: The crystal, also called the window or watch glass, is the transparent part of the case that allows viewing the hands and the dial of the movement. Modern wristwatches almost always use one of 4 materials: The bezel is the ring holding the crystal in place. The lugs are small metal projections at both ends of the wristwatch case where
11484-399: The unions were then dissolved, and the oligarchs remained in power while Nuremberg was a free city (until the early-19th century). Charles IV conferred upon the city the right to conclude alliances independently, thereby placing it upon a politically equal footing with the princes of the Empire . Frequent fights took place with the burgraves without, however, inflicting lasting damage upon
11600-487: The use of a battery, using a traditional mechanical gear train powered by a spring, without the need for a balance wheel either. In 2010, Miyota ( Citizen Watch ) of Japan introduced a newly developed movement that uses a 3-pronged quartz crystal that was exclusively produced for Bulova to be used in the Precisionist or Accutron II line, a new type of quartz watch with ultra-high frequency (262.144 kHz) which
11716-633: The use of wristwatches subsequently became widespread among the officer class. The company Mappin & Webb began production of their successful "campaign watch" for soldiers during the campaign in the Sudan in 1898 and accelerated production for the Second Boer War of 1899–1902 a few years later. In continental Europe, Girard-Perregaux and other Swiss watchmakers began supplying German naval officers with wristwatches in about 1880. Early models were essentially standard pocket-watches fitted to
11832-483: The war were specially designed for the rigors of trench warfare , with luminous dials and unbreakable glass. The UK War Office began issuing wristwatches to combatants from 1917. By the end of the war, almost all enlisted men wore a wristwatch (or wristlet ), and after they were demobilized, the fashion soon caught on: the British Horological Journal wrote in 1917, that "the wristlet watch
11948-550: The war. After World War II , many medieval-style areas of the town were rebuilt. Beyond its main attractions of the Imperial Castle , St. Lorenz Church , and Nazi Trial grounds , there are 54 different museums for arts and culture, history, science and technology, family and children, and more niche categories, where visitors can see the world's oldest globe (built in 1492), a 500-year-old Madonna, and Renaissance-era German art. There are several types of tours offered in
12064-412: The watch band attaches to the watch case. The case and the lugs are often machined from one solid piece of stainless steel. The movement of a watch is the mechanism that measures the passage of time and displays the current time (and possibly other information including date, month, and day). Movements may be entirely mechanical, entirely electronic (potentially with no moving parts), or they might be
12180-402: The watch. The concept is similar to that of self-winding spring movements, except that electrical power is generated instead of mechanical spring tension. Solar powered watches are powered by light. A photovoltaic cell on the face ( dial ) of the watch converts light to electricity, which is used to charge a rechargeable battery or capacitor . The movement of the watch draws its power from
12296-506: The way to greater prosperity. In 1852, there were 53,638 inhabitants: 46,441 Protestants and 6,616 Catholics. It subsequently grew to become the more important industrial city of Southern Germany, one of the most prosperous towns of southern Germany, but after the Austro-Prussian War it was given to Prussia as part of their telegraph stations they had to give up. In 1905, its population, including several incorporated suburbs,
12412-449: The wearer's wrist motions are inadequate to keep the watch wound. In April 2013, the Swatch Group launched the sistem51 wristwatch. It has a mechanical movement consisting of only 51 parts, including 19 jewels and a novel self-winding mechanism with a transparent oscillating weight. Ten years after its introduction, it is still the only mechanical movement manufactured entirely on a fully automated assembly line, including adjustment of
12528-606: Was 291,351: 86,943 Catholics, 196,913 Protestants, 3,738 Jews and 3,766 members of other religions. The Fränkischer Kurier was published as a local newspaper in Nuremberg. Nuremberg held great significance during the Nazi German era. Because of the city's relevance to the Holy Roman Empire and its position in the centre of Germany, the Nazi Party chose the city to be the site of huge Nazi Party conventions:
12644-403: Was a heavily fortified city that was captured in a fierce battle lasting from 17 to 20 April 1945 by the U.S. 3rd Infantry Division , 42nd Infantry Division and 45th Infantry Division , which fought house-to-house and street-by-street against determined German resistance, causing further urban devastation to the already bombed and shelled buildings. Despite this intense degree of destruction,
12760-564: Was a late flowering of architecture and culture; secular Baroque architecture is exemplified in the layout of the civic gardens built outside the city walls, and in the Protestant city's rebuilding of St. Egidien church , destroyed by fire at the beginning of the 18th century, considered a significant contribution to the baroque church architecture of Middle Franconia. After the Thirty Years' War, Nuremberg attempted to remain detached from external affairs, but contributions were demanded for
12876-463: Was little used by the sterner sex before the war, but now is seen on the wrist of nearly every man in uniform and of many men in civilian attire." By 1930, the wristwatch vastly exceeded the pocket watch in market share by a decisive ratio of 50:1. John Harwood invented the first successful self-winding system in 1923. In anticipation of Harwood's patent for self-winding mechanisms expiry in 1930, Glycine founder Eugène Meylan started development on
12992-520: Was located here, and extensively used slave labour . On 2 January 1945, the medieval city centre was systematically bombed by the Royal Air Force and the U.S. Army Air Forces and about ninety percent of it was destroyed in only one hour, with 1,800 residents killed and roughly 100,000 displaced. In February 1945, additional attacks followed. In total, about 6,000 Nuremberg residents are estimated to have been killed in air raids. Nuremberg
13108-538: Was navigator and geographer Martin Behaim , who made the first world globe. Sculptors such as Veit Stoss , Adam Kraft and Peter Vischer are also associated with Nuremberg. Composed of prosperous artisans, the guilds of the Meistersingers flourished here. Richard Wagner made their most famous member, Hans Sachs , the hero of his opera Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg . Baroque composer Johann Pachelbel
13224-856: Was the Patek Philippe Henry Graves Supercomplication , the world's most complicated mechanical watch until 1989, fetching US$ 24 million ( CHF 23,237,000) in Geneva on 11 November 2014. As of December 2019, the most expensive watch ever sold at auction (and wristwatch) was the Patek Philippe Grandmaster Chime Ref. 6300A-010, fetching US$ 31.19 million (CHF 31,000,000) in Geneva on 9 November 2019. Watches evolved from portable spring-driven clocks, which first appeared in 15th-century Europe. The first timepieces to be worn, made in
13340-472: Was the invention of a British watch repairer named John Harwood in 1923. This type of watch winds itself without requiring any special action by the wearer. It uses an eccentric weight, called a winding rotor, which rotates with the movement of the wearer's wrist. The back-and-forth motion of the winding rotor couples to a ratchet to wind the mainspring automatically. Self-winding watches usually can also be wound manually to keep them running when not worn or if
13456-706: Was the venue of the Nuremberg Military Tribunals , organized by the United States as occupying power in the area. In order to come to terms with the role Nuremberg played during the Third Reich , the city established the Nuremberg International Human Rights Award in 1995, awarded every two years to individuals or groups defending human rights worldwide. Several old villages now belong to
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