The watch has a long and fascinating history, from a fifteenth-century status symbol of the rich and powerful to the mass-produced everyday timepiece of modern times. This book describes the main technical developments across a 500-year timespan, from the beginnings in Germany and France, through the golden age of English horology in the 18th century, to the development of modern factory production in America and Switzerland. It also sets out to give the general reader and collector a grasp of the key technological developments in watch and sets the lives of the inventors and artisans in the context of the social and economic history of their times. With over 290 photographs and 3D diagrams, this book includes an extensive listing and history of watch brands and manufacturers to assist in identification along with a useful glossary of terms.

This book, originally published in 1978. was the first full-length critical study of the life and works of the Irish writer Gerald Griffin (1803 1840), who is best known for his once celebrated romantic novel The Collegians. After an unsuccessful start in London in the 1820s, he turned to the writing of regional novels and tales. He hoped these would give the English public a realistic picture of contemporary Ireland, and would induce them to reconsider their often antagonistic attitude to the Irish. Dr Cronin gives a full account of Griffin's life and literary career, and traces his gradual decline into creative sterility, using unpublished letters and other forgotten source material. He explores Griffin's period of journalism, examines the formative influence of his early struggles in London, and analyses in detail his novels, stories and drama. Throughout, he relates Griffin's work to that of his contemporaries and to the troubled Ireland of the time, and seeks to establish him firmly as a significant representative figure in an Anglo-Irish literary tradition.