What was the first "big" wristwatch?

Is there a generally accepted watch which kicked off the wall clock on your wrist movement?

i assume its a tool watch but perhaps I'm wrong as usual??

Size 12 trench watches back around WWI:

http://www.watchtalkforums.info/forums/thread67275.html

The original Panerai of the 1940's:

http://www.hodinkee.com/blog/2011/4...i-radiomir-1940s-italian-navy-cool-video.html

Wall clocks for the wrist have been around..... well, before wall clocks.

Big wrist watches have been around since the beginning, when pocket watches were first modified for the wrist, but, early on, men's wrist watches quickly became very small. Most men's watches from the 20s and 30s are too small for the modern, fashion-conscious WOMAN to wear today... mostly 28-32 mm... even chronographs frequently checking in at around 32 mm.

The big, early trench watches, pilot watches and dive watches are anomalies... and some very serious early scuba divers are known to have preferred smaller watches that stayed out of the way, provided they were waterproof and highly visible (thus my growing obsession with the Enicar Seapearl 600).

Form used to follow function... check out the slender, wrist-hugging Movado Polyplan some time. But this was before the age of horological compensation... back in the days of automotive braggadocio, when you could buy a car with giant tail fins and a humongous gas-guzzling engine, and the world would smile upon you. Then, a mechanical watch could be a status symbol, but it didn't have to be.

I guess form still follows function, but the primary function of the technologically obsolete mechanical wrist watch is now to project status and fashion sense... so it must be highly visible not just to the wearer, but to the guy at the other end of the conference table. I mostly agree with this 2011 NYT article and blame Stallone, OPEC/environmentalists, and women for the wrist-clock phenomenon:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/25/fashion/mens-watches-keep-getting-bigger.html?pagewanted=all

To get back to the OP's original question, my vote goes to Stallone's first Panerai.

Hold on - Carlton from 'The Fresh Prince' is one of Tom Cruise's children?

And what's with the Omega Seamaster Railmaster? Is that the requisite size, in order to be master of both sea and rail?

Yes, it has to be railly big you sea.

(C.Konrad Knirim)

"What wristwatches look like whilst tripping on bad LSD"

Indeed. The good stuff makes watches look like this:

Yes. And like most good looking Zeniths, it ended up in the tender clutches of LouS. 😀

Trippin' to Munich