Inventors · c. 1485 – 1542
Peter Henlein
Peter Henlein (c. 1485–1542) was a locksmith and clockmaker in Nuremberg, Germany, traditionally credited with making some of the first portable, spring-driven timepieces in the early 1500s: the ancestors of the pocket watch.
Key facts
| Lived | c. 1485 – 1542 |
|---|---|
| Where | Nuremberg, Holy Roman Empire (Germany) |
| Known for | Early portable spring-driven clocks, c. 1505–1510 |
| Big idea | The mainspring replaced hanging weights |
A clock you could carry
Before the 1500s, clocks were driven by heavy weights hanging on ropes, so they had to stay put on walls and in towers. The breakthrough was the mainspring, a coiled ribbon of steel that stores energy as it's wound and releases it slowly. Craftsmen in southern Germany learned to build small clocks around it, small enough to hang from a belt or a chain.
Henlein was one of those craftsmen. A 1511 account by the scholar Johannes Cochlaeus praised a young Nuremberg man who made small iron clocks that ran for 40 hours and could be carried in a purse. That description is the main reason Henlein's name became attached to the invention of the watch.
The legend and the doubts
Henlein became a German national hero in the 1800s, with statues, a stamp and even a film. Historians are more careful: others in Nuremberg and Augsburg were doing similar work, and no surviving watch is proven to be his. The famous "Nuremberg egg" shape also came decades after his death; the name probably comes from a mix-up between the German Ührlein ("little clock") and Eierlein ("little egg").
Early watches were beautiful but wildly inaccurate, often losing or gaining an hour a day, and many had only an hour hand. They were jewelry and status symbols as much as timekeepers.
Read more: Who invented the watch? 50 inventions · the full story of the watchmakers
Questions people ask
Did Peter Henlein invent the watch?
He's traditionally credited with some of the first portable spring-driven clocks, around 1505–1510, but others were doing similar work and historians treat the claim with caution.
What is a Nuremberg egg?
An oval, egg-shaped early watch from the late 1500s. The name likely came from a mistranslation, and the shape came after Henlein's time.
Sources
Last updated October 18, 2026. Found an error? Tell us.