Abraham-Louis Perrelet was born in Neuch tel in Switzerland and was a renowned Swiss horologist. Perrelet invented a self-winding mechanism in 1770 for pocket watches. Perrelet's watch worked on the same principle as a modern wristwatch, and was designed to wind as the owner walked, using an oscillating weight inside the large watch that moved up and down. The Geneva Society of Arts reported in 1776 that only fifteen minutes of walking was necessary to wind the Perrelet wristwatch sufficiently for eight days, and the following year reported that it was selling well. Perrelet is thus widely acknowledged as the inventor of the basic movement known today as an AUTOMATIC (self-winding) movement.
