[2][3] He was one of the first craftsmen to make small ornamental portable clocks which were often worn as pendants or attached to clothing,[4] and which are regarded as the first watches.

[2][16] Henlein became known as a maker of small portable ornamental spring-powered brass clocks, very rare and expensive,[2] which were fashionable among the nobility of the time, worn as pendants or attached to clothing, which can be considered the first watches.

[12] The first and most important historical tribute of Peter Henlein and his invention of a portable watch was made in 1511 by an influential figure of the time.

Johannes Cochläus, humanist and contemporary of Peter Henlein, he wrote in the appendix of the description of the world “Cosmographia Pomponius Mela – De Norimberga Germania Centro”, which is dedicated to the humanist of the Renaissance Willibald Pirckheimer, a eulogy to the City of Nuremberg, including a praise for Peter Henlein and his watches:[2][17][1][21][a] “Every day they (the craftsmen of Nuremberg) invent finer things.

For example, Peter Hele (Henlein), still a young man, fashions works that even the most learned mathematicians admire: for from only a little bit of iron he makes clocks with many wheels, which, no matter how one might turn them, show and chime the hours for forty hours without any weight, even when carried at the breast or in a handbag (purse).”Johann Neudörfers wrote in 1547 that Henlein invented the portable pomander watches (die bisam Köpf zu machen erfunden).

[26] His customers included the high society of the 16th century, f. e. Martin Luther, Kaspar von Schöneich (chancellor of Mecklenburg), Frederick III, Elector of Saxony, Kardinal Albrecht from Brandenburg, Philip Melanchthon, Mercurino di Gattinara as well as gifts which were given by the Nuremberg Council.

Inscription: ‘IN MEMORY OF THE INVENTOR OF THE POCKET WATCH PETER HENLEIN FROM THE CITY OF NUREMBERG AND THE GERMAN WATCHMAKERS ASSOCIATION’.

[28][29] His fame as the inventor of the watch came after his rise to popular consciousness in the 19th century, through a novel by Karl Spindler, Der Nürnberger Sophokles.

Much earlier, the Walhalla in Donaustauf, which is a memorial for "politicians, sovereigns, scientists and artists of the German tongue",[31] honors Peter Henlein in 1842, at its inauguration with the words inventor of the pocket watch.

[37][6][7] Although he did not invent the mainspring, the production of his portable watches was made possible primarily by a previously unseen scale of miniaturization of the torsion pendulum and coil spring mechanism, placed in a technical unit by Peter Henlein, a technological innovation and novelty of the time, operating in all positions; which makes him to the inventor of the watch.

[16] Under the immense Renaissance conditions and dramatic personal circumstances, a German fine forger, locksmith and later watchmaker named Peter Henlein had the vision, artistic skill and craftsmanship to make a timepiece that was wearable on the body for the very first time.