The pocket watch could be called the world's first "smart" device, and its development involved some of the greatest scientific minds of the 17th Century,
In the late 17th Century, clock and watch design was part of national security. Navigation and mapping were both essential for the successful conduct of war - and England was involved in a sequence of wars against the French and the Dutch in this period. Star charts and nautical maps depended on observations made with one of the new long telescopes, and the time of each observation had to be accurately recorded. The person who could improve the accuracy of currently available clocks could make himself a handsome sum from manufacturing and marketing his state-of-the-art timekeeper.
