10 October: World Watch Day
Today, 10 October, is the second World Watch Day. The date, 10/10, is the time at which almost every watch poses for its photograph. The IPR is spending the afternoon at the Medeiros e Almeida Museum in Lisbon, building clocks with children.
Why 10/10
Anyone who has leafed through a watch catalogue will have noticed: the hands almost always show ten past ten. In that position they are symmetrical, they leave the brand name at 12 o'clock in view and they draw something like a smile. That time gave the day its date.
The initiative was announced on 7 April 2025 at Watches and Wonders in Geneva, under the name World Watch Day — Journée Internationale de l'Horlogerie. It is coordinated by a non-profit association whose founding members include the Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie, the Grand Prix d'Horlogerie de Genève foundation, the Horological Society of New York and the Horopedia Foundation.
The first edition took place on 10 October 2025 and reached more than six million people worldwide.
The 2026 edition: time as living heritage
The theme of the second edition is “Time as Living Heritage”. The idea is to show how horological heritage keeps evolving through craftsmanship, knowledge and creativity, and how it is passed on from one generation to the next.
There are more than 55 events and initiatives in several countries: exhibitions, talks, workshops, educational initiatives, museum activities, artistic commissions and digital projects.
A few examples from today's programme:
Geneva — the Musée d'Art et d'Histoire hosts a morning gathering for new enthusiasts, followed by talks.
Le Locle — the Musée d'horlogerie opens its restoration workshop to visitors.
New York — the Horological Society of New York opens its library and watchmaking classroom to the public.
Shanghai — Hantang Culture unveils “Sundial”, an artwork commissioned for the occasion.
Florence — the Museo Galileo publishes digital content on the timepieces in its collection.
Watch lovers are invited to share a wrist shot today with #WorldWatchDay. The full programme is at worldwatchday.org.
Today, at the Medeiros e Almeida Museum
Passing knowledge on to the youngest is also what the IPR is doing today. From 2 pm to 7 pm, the Medeiros e Almeida Museum hosts “O Tempo que nos Liga: Oficina de Pequenos Relojoeiros” (The Time that Binds Us: Little Watchmakers' Workshop), a joint proposal by the Instituto Português de Relojoaria and the Museum, part of Festival Conecta – O Nosso Bairro, organised by ACP – Automóvel Club de Portugal.
The workshop is for children, accompanied by an adult, in sessions of about 60 minutes with 8 to 10 children each. Every child puts on a watchmaker's coat, receives an “Apprentice Watchmaker” card and, working in pairs, assembles a mechanical table clock with a transparent case, coloured wheels, a pendulum and a bell. At the end they take home the Almanaque do Tempo, a booklet of games and curiosities about time and clocks.
The Museum is at Rua Rosa Araújo, 41, in Lisbon, with a temporary entrance at Rua Mouzinho da Silveira, 4. All the details are in the article about the workshop (in Portuguese).
The venue suits the date: the Museum holds one of the most important clock and watch collections in Portugal. And on 19 December it will once again host Tempo Futuro, the independent watchmaking fair organised by the IPR.
From the tower to the wrist
The first European mechanical clocks appeared at the end of the 13th century, in the towers of churches and monasteries. Many had no dial at all: they told the hours by striking a bell.
In the 16th century the mainspring made them portable, and the clock moved from the tower to the table and from the table to the pocket. The wristwatch only became widespread at the beginning of the 20th century, especially after the First World War.
In 1969 quartz arrived, cheaper and more accurate, and many thought the mechanical watch was finished. It was not: it is still made, worn and collected all over the world.
Inside a watch
A mechanical wristwatch has more than a hundred parts. The mainspring stores the energy, the wheels transmit it, the escapement releases it little by little and the balance, with a hairspring thinner than a human hair, sets the rhythm.
In an ordinary watch the balance swings 28,800 times an hour, almost 700,000 times a day, with no battery and without stopping.
All that motion wears out oils and parts. That is why a watch needs servicing from time to time, and that is where the watchmaker comes in: taking it apart, cleaning it, repairing or making the missing part, oiling, reassembling and regulating it.
A stopped watch is almost never lost. It is waiting for a watchmaker.
A Portuguese watch
October 2025 saw the presentation of the Les Tugas Modelo 01, the first Portuguese wristwatch. In 2026 it was joined by the Serpe, with a straw marquetry dial made by hand by Bernardo D'Orey. Both are at lestugas.pt.
At the Instituto Português de Relojoaria, the watch is an everyday matter: in the classes, in the repair and restoration workshop, in the workshops for the public and at the Tempo Passado and Tempo Futuro fairs.
How to mark the day
Take the children this afternoon to the Little Watchmakers' Workshop at the Medeiros e Almeida Museum.
Photograph your watch on your wrist and share it with #WorldWatchDay.
Wind the watch that has been forgotten in a drawer and listen to it run.
Ask at home about the story of the family watch: whose it was, who gave it, when it stopped.
Bring us the watch that has stopped. The estimate is free and our reception is open Monday to Friday, from 10 am to 12 noon and from 1.30 pm to 5 pm, at Rua Alfredo da Silva, 13B, in Lisbon.
Try a workshop and assemble a watch with your own hands.
Happy World Watch Day.
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