The goal of this speech is to organize your speech with a good opening, body and conclusion. The idea is that a well organized speech is clearer to the audience and ideas expressed are easier to remember.
To me, more than organizing the speech itself, the challenge was to select a speech topic. As I thought about the speech, I quickly realized that this is not as easy as it seems. Ice breaker was easy to prepare because you were told what the topic was. But with the second speech, you are responsible to pick an interesting topic.
And there I was, stuck. I thought, I thought and I thought. I could have spoken about some personal experience, talk about a time of life which was interesting and so on. But I did not want to do any of that. I feel it is always easy to talk about something out of your personal experience. But it is very difficult to talk about something with which you have no personal or emotional attachment. Hence, I posed this as a personal challenge.
One afternoon, at work, I took a break to stare at my watch. I noticed that the bezel on my watch was not positioned right. It did not look like it looked the last time. My watch is a diver's watch, but I did not understand the purpose of unidirectional bezel rotation. I decided to "google" about it. Apparently, divers set the bezel on the watch to match the minute they start to keep track of the time they can be underwater. I thought that piece of fact was interesting and there! A topic for my speech was born. Here it is...
Speech 2 - Organize your speech (5-7 minutes)
Time and Again - History and evolution of Wristwatches
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Opening -
Time goes, you say? Ah no!With those words, I wish you all a very good morning. Time has always been an intriguing concept for humans and time keeping more so. Through the course of human civilization keeping track of time has been of utmost importance. And a watch has become culturally central to our lives.
Alas, Time stays, we go.
- Henry Austin Dobson
Let's us time travel a little today and learn about the history and evolution of watches.
16th Century
In Horology, this period was of great advancement and innovation. Peter Heinlein, a German watchmaker often considered the inventor of the portable timekeeper made the first known watch in early 1500s.
What you see here is a 16th century watch made by Peter Heinlein.
Also, the watches had only one hour hand. The accuracy very poor, that they were practically useless. They were made as jewelry and novelties for noble, a display of social status.
17th Century
This period saw little in the way of technical innovation. Early watches slowed down during their running period, problem called lack of Isochronisms. So they thought... let’s work on the decoration.
This is a early 17th century watch made of gold, enamel and precious stones. Precious metal were engraved, watches were jeweled, pierced and enameled for decoration. Glass was used to cover the face of the watches.
Then was the English Protestant Puritan movement which advocated the simplification and regulation of forms of worship. As a result of which unornamented watches became popular. Fancy shapes and adornment were usually confined to women’s watches.
Around 18th Century
After men figured that they couldn’t wear fancy watches, they decided to focus back on the technology. With addition of the balance spring during this period, accuracy improved greatly. It also resulted in the addition of the minute hand to the face.
One other important change that happened during this period occurred when Charles II of England introduced waistcoats. Men began to wear watches in pockets instead of as pendants.
With the increase in accuracy it was also noted that the position of the watch had an effect. The watch would gain or lose time depending on the pendant and face positions.
19th Century
The Enlightenment view of watches as scientific instruments brought rapid advances to their mechanisms. Almost accurate marine chronometers were made to determine longitudes during sea voyages. But till this point, watches were handmade and assembled until Americans came into play.
The Americans were the first to begin volume production. Mass production of watches was pioneered by the Waltham Watch Company in Massachusetts. Also with the use of railroads and for safety, first precision and reliable timepiece inspection system for Railroad chronometers were made.
This is a Hamilton railroad pocket watch, dated 1890s.
20th Century
During World War I was when Wristwatches were made and became popular. Patek Philippe created the first wristwatch in late 1800s. In 1904, Brazilian aviator Alberto Santos Dumont asked his friend Louis Cartier to come up with an alternative that would allow him to keep both hands on the controls during flight.
Cartier soon came up with the first prototype for a man's wristwatch called the Santos wristwatch.
What you see here is a trench watch, World War I soldiers wore these wristwatches and slowly pocket watches were out of fashion.
21st Century
The introduction of the quartz watch in 1960s was a revolutionary improvement in watch technology. In place of a balance wheel, watches used a quartz crystal, driven by a battery powered. Now quartz watches had taken over most of the watch market from the mechanical watch industry.
Conclusion
Today, watch makers like Patek Philippe, Rolex and the like still make mechanical watches with grand complications which cost millions. At the same time, relatively cheap electronic watches with digital display, watches for divers, astronauts are at our disposal.
Next time you look at a watch, don't just look at the watch - think of the grand history, think of the engineering, think of it as an expression of individuality and social status and most of all think of it as a piece of art.
With all that in mind, please, please, please remember to take off your watch before you get into a fight.
Thank you!
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I had taken pictures with me of old watches to add visual interest.
After I finished the speech, I realized that I had missed lot of points I had in mind. I also missed showing the audience few pictures. I was also more keen on finishing the speech in time. So, forgetting some points really helped me stick to the time :)
Overall, the speech was OK. The opening and the conclusion was well received.
I realized how difficult it is to speak about topics such as this. This speech was a good eye opener for me.
