A History of Tiffany Watches

1837

Charles Lewis Tiffany opens a store on Lower Broadway in New York City.

1847

Tiffany begins selling watches.

1853

Charles Lewis Tiffany installs a statue of Atlas holding a clock above the entrance of his store. It was one of the first public clocks in New York City.

1868

Tiffany introduces America's first stopwatch, the Tiffany Timer.

1874

Tiffany opens a massive four-story facility on the Place Cornavin in Geneva, Switzerland.

1875

Tiffany & Co. is assigned its first patent for watch improvements, including watch hand settings, anchor escapement for watches and watch regulators.

1883

With the adoption of standard time in New York City, Tiffany begins a weekly regulation of over 400 clocks in New York.

1893

At the Chicago World's Fair, Tiffany takes home awards for its watch display.

1903

Tiffany chief gemologist George F. Kunz patents luminescent paint. Numerals on watches are never quite the same.

1910-20s

Developments in speed and industry lead to smaller and more simplified wristwatches. Tiffany's Art Deco watches are declared the ultimate accessory for flapper fashions.

1939

Tiffany features spectacular diamond cocktail watches in its “House of Jewels” exhibit at the New York World's Fair.

1940

An ingenious folding purse watch is crafted for women on the go. Decades later, it will inspire the Tiffany East West watch.

1945

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt receives a Tiffany watch as a birthday gift, which he wears to the historic Yalta Conference.

1972

Gold bracelet watches with close fitting links of unusual shapes from the 1972 Blue Book.

1983

The Atlas® watch is introduced, inspired by the Roman numerals of the famous Atlas clock.

1993

Tiffany introduces the Streamerica® watch inspired by the American industrial design movement of the 1930s.

2009

Tiffany adds a white diamond cocktail watch to its collection, recalling glamorous evening watches from America's Jazz Age.

2015

Tiffany launches its newest collection of watches. The Tiffany CT60 was inspired by a watch originally sold by Tiffany in the 1940s, and given to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt as a birthday gift in 1945.