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A Nuremberg egg (German language: ) is a type of small ornamental spring-driven clock made to be worn around the neck, produced in Nuremberg in the mid-to-late 16th century.
Their production was made possible by the miniaturisation of the torsion pendulum and coil spring mechanism by Nuremberg clockmaker Peter Henlein (d. 1542) at the beginning of the 16th century (c. 1505–10). These portable watches were a novelty (although the oldest portable watch driven by wound-up clockwork rather than by weights dates to c. 1430, the so-called watch of Philip the Good), and their accuracy was very limited, so that they only had a single hand, showing hours.
There are three types of clock-watches made in early 16th-century Nuremberg:
It is known that Henlein first succeeded in producing a portable clock in 1510, and his contributions were clearly instrumental in giving rise to the later Nuremberg "neck-watch" industry. He is recorded to have sold a "gilded Pomander for all purposes with a clock-mechanism" ( vergulten pysn Apffel für all Ding mit einem Oraiologium, i.e. a clock built into a precious perfume-box) for 15 Goldgulden to the city on 11 January 1524. Of the "pomander watch" type ( Bisamapfeluhr), only two specimens are known to survive, one dated to 1505 and attributed to Henlein, the other dated 1530 (Walters Art Museum, Baltimore).
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