<P> The history of watches began in 16th century Europe, where watches evolved from portable spring - driven clocks, which first appeared in the 15th century . Portable timepieces were made possible by the invention of the mainspring in the early 15th century . Nuremberg clockmaker Peter Henlein (or Henle or Hele) (1485 - 1542) is often credited as the inventor of the watch . He was one of the first German craftsman who made "clock - watches" (taschenuhr), ornamental timepieces worn as pendants, which were the first timepieces to be worn on the body . His fame is based on a passage by Johann Cochläus in 1511: </P> <P> Peter Hele, still a young man, fashions works which even the most learned mathematicians admire . He shapes many - wheeled clocks out of small bits of iron, which run and chime the hours without weights for forty hours, whether carried at the breast or in a handbag </P>

When was the first watch made and by whom