The first timepieces meant to be carried were made in the 16th century in the German cities of Nuremberg and Augsburg, in sizes between a clock and a watch. Nuremberg clockmaker Peter Henlein, who lived from 1485 to 1542, is often credited as the inventor, but other German clockmakers were making miniature timepieces at the same time, and there is no evidence Henlein was first. Watches were not commonly carried in pockets until the 17th century. The name is debated: one account links watch to the Old English woecce, meaning watchman, because town watchmen used such devices to track their shifts. Another holds that 17th-century sailors used the new mechanisms to time their shipboard watches, or duty shifts.

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.