Watch 1505 - the world's first watch
Peter Henlein was born in 1485 in Nuremberg, Bayern, Germany. His parents were Peter, a brass forger and citizen of Nuremberg since 1461, and Barbara Henlein. He had one older brother, Herman Henlein, who became also a master cutler in 1496.
Peter Henlein apparently apprenticed in his youth as a locksmith. At the time, locksmiths were among the few craftsmen with the skills and tools to enter the new field of clockmaking.
On September 7, 1504, a dramatic event occurred in Peter Henleins life. He was involved in a brawl in which fellow locksmith, Georg Glaser was killed. As one of the co-accused Peter Henlein begged for an Asylum in the Franciscan Monastery of Nuremberg. During his Asylum in the monastery, he very likely gained deeper knowledge on the crafts of clockmaking.
The author Ullrich Schmidt describes and documents in detail the history of the monastery in which Peter Henlein took asylum between 1504 and 1508. During Henlein’s time the monastery was especially magnificent. For example, the monk Friedrich Krafft built a complicated Astrologium in this monastery. Numerous very-learned personalities, mathematician and astronomers entered the monastery in Henlein’s day. Thus Peter Henlein not only came into contact with new techniques and tools, but also with a spiritual and intellectual environment related to his craftsmanship.
In 1505, Peter Henlein invented the world's first watch, the Watch 1505, a fire-gilded pomander. In November they year 1509, he became a master in the city's locksmith guild. He became known as a maker of small portable ornamental spring-powered brass clocks, very rare and expensive, which were fashionable among the nobility of the time, sometimes worn as pendants or attached to clothing - known as pomander watches.
Peter Henlein is mentioned in the city's records as the supplier of small spring-driven clocks, which were given as gifts to important people. He was the first craftsman to build clockworks into "Bisamköpfe" so called pomanders, small containers fashioned from precious metals for fragrances or disinfectants. According to further records, in 1524 Henlein sold a musk-ball (pomander) watch.
In 1529, Peter Henlein traveled to Strasbourg on behalf of the Nuremberg council, for a sky globe. Six years later, he crafted a watch for the council of Nuremberg. He also built a tower clock for Lichtenau castle in 1541, and was known as a builder of advanced astronomical instruments.
Peter Henlein died in August 1542 and was buried at the Katharinenkirche, Nuremberg.
In his lifetime, Peter Henlein crafted many watches and instruments. A paper from 1524 records that Heinlein was paid 15 florins (one florin is approximately between 140 and 1000 modern US dollars) for a gilt pomander watch. His customers included the high society of the 16th century, f. e. Martin Luther, Kaspar von Schöneich (chancellor of Mecklenburg), Frederick III, Elector of Saxony, Kardinal Albrecht from Brandenburg, Philip Melanchthon, Mercurino di Gattinara as well as gifts which were given by the Nuremberg Council.
Quotes from others about the person
In 1730, Johann Gabriel Doppelmayr, German mathematican, described Peter Henlein in his book Historische Nachrichten: "von den nürbergischen Mathematicis und Künstlern as the inventor of watches (Sack Uhren)."
In his life Peter Henlein was married to three women: Kunigunde Ernst, his first wife, and Margarethe, his second, and Walburga Schreyer, his third wife.
