1. One whose trade it is to make watches.
1630. Capt. J. Smith, True Trav., 35. Gold-smiths … and Watch-makers.
a. 1672. Wilkins, Disc. New Planet, II. (1684), 152. We allow every Watch-maker so much wisdom, as not to put any Motion in his Instrument, which is superfluous.
1710. Berkeley, Princ. Hum. Knowl., I. § 62. Those Actions of the Watchmaker, whereby he makes the Movements and rightly adjusts them.
1758. Johnson, Idler, No. 26, ¶ 8. My first mistress was wife of a working watch-maker.
1832. G. Downes, Lett. Cont. Countries, I. 261. Geneva…. We have been a full fortnight in this paradise of watchmakers.
b. attrib. uses of possessive, as watch-maker’s file, glass, lens, etc.; watchmaker’s cramp, a neurosis affecting watchmakers.
1683. Moxon, Mech. Exerc., Printing, xii. ¶ 1. Small and Fine Files (commonly called Watch-makers Files).
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., 2734. Watchmaker’s Glass, a double convex lens set in a tubular socket, adapted to be held to the eye by the contraction of the orbital muscles.
1888. Rutley, Rock-Forming Min., 3. A watch-maker’s lens, held in the eye.
1899. Syd. Soc. Lex., Watchmaker’s cramp.
2. slang. (See quot.)
1859. Hotten’s Slang Dict., Watchmaker, a pickpocket, or stealer of watches.
