GENEVA — There is hardly a watch company that does not lay claim to some invention, whether it be creating a material or manufacturing a movement or devising a new design. And while such achievements include bragging rights in the watch industry, the more tangible benefit may be the new customers lured by the news.

“People who follow watches want to reward companies that don’t stand still,” Ruediger Albers, president of Wempe Jewelers US, said in a recent phone interview. “They like to think they are on the cutting edge and they support the efforts companies make coming up with something new.”

Although newness only goes so far, Alexandre Ghotbi, head of watches for Continental Europe and the Middle East at Phillips, said by phone, noting that “the real game changers happened in the 1800s or 1900s.”

Here is some of what the industry sees as firsts.

Wristwatch

To get what may be the industry’s most disputed title out of the way, let’s just say that there are several brands, including Cartier, Patek Philippe and Breguet, with claims to having invented the wristwatch. They’re all wrong. Maybe.

According to the watch expert and historian Grégory Gardinetti, “Some historians consider the gift given by Robert Dudley, the Earl of Leicester, to Queen Elizabeth I in 1571 to be the ancestor of the wristwatch. The gift was described to be a clock full of diamonds suspended by a bracelet so it could be worn as a bracelet.” But even that assertion about Dudley’s gift has been doubted by some historians, Mr. Gardinetti added: “Some say it never existed.”

Elizabeth Doerr, the editor in chief of the watch website Quill and Pad, offered an explanation for the continuing dispute. “The reality as to why the advent of the wristwatch is so disputed (and for that matter the first timepiece at all) is because in many cases there are no records,” she said by email. “Historians keep finding things, clues that show up as time passes. Sometimes they come from timepieces hidden in collections in safes or vaults that turn up occasionally at auction or elsewhere.”

Swiss Watch Factory

Zenith, begun in 1865, became the first modern watch manufacture in Switzerland when its founder, Georges Favre-Jacot, inspired by how American watchmakers were operating, decided to place all of its production under one roof in Le Locle. Swiss watchmaking previously had been a cottage industry, with parts produced and then assembled by watchmakers in their homes or small ateliers. Today, the factory, covering more than 16,000 square meters, or 172,222 square feet, in Le Locle holds 190 employees.

Tourbillon

In 1801 Abraham-Louis Breguet patented the tourbillon, a complication that counteracts the effects of gravity on a watch mechanism, making its timekeeping more accurate. His namesake brand is the industry-acknowledged creator of 20 firsts, from the balance spring in 1795 to the distinctive Breguet hands in 1783. “Our role is to perpetuate this heritage while continuing to move forward,” Lionel a Marca, chief executive of the brand now owned by the Swatch Group, said by email.

Chronograph

The chronograph, which in its most basic form is the combination of a watch and a stopwatch, was developed in 1816. “Louis Moinet was the inventor of the compteur de tierces, the ancestor of the chronograph,” Mr. Gardinetti, the watch historian, said by email. Today, the Louis Moinet brand calls itself the “inventor of the chronograph.” In 1969, Zenith came through with another first. “The El Primero was the first automatic chronograph, the first movement beating to the tenth of a second,” Mr. Gardinetti wrote, referring to the type of chronograph that is housed in the kind of watch that does not require winding. “Today this iconic piece has really made the brand famous and is inseparable from it.” The technology established Zenith’s reputation as an innovator. Even the name — El Primero, or “the first” — added to the image.

Waterproof Watch

Rolex got plenty of mileage out of its debut of a waterproof watch (though other brands have laid claim to being the first). “Mercedes Gleitze wore an Oyster watch when she swam across the English Channel” in 1927, said Mr. Albers of Wempe. “Creating a watch that could be in the water for hours shook the world.” Other brands took note, and waterproof or water-resistant watches are now commonplace.

Dive Watch

Rolex’s Submariner, introduced in 1953, is another oft-imitated first. “It is iconic,” Jack Forster, editor in chief of the online watch platform Hodinkee, said by phone. “It set the stage for the whole category of dive watches that could be available to a wide public and worn for recreational diving” as well as on land.

Stainless-Steel Luxury Watch

The Audemars Piguet Royal Oak, designed by Gerald Genta, is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. “It was the first stainless-steel luxury sports watch,” Mr. Forster said. “Up to that point, stainless steel was reserved for sports watches, but not luxury watches. A.P. single-handedly established the category of luxury stainless-steel sports watches. Any brand making money on theirs should pay A.P. royalties.”

Watch on the Moon

The Omega Speedmaster “was the first watch on the moon and the only watch certified by NASA,” Mr. Gardinetti wrote, referring to Buzz Aldrin’s moonwalk in 1969. Mr. Gardinetti credits Omega’s former marketing director Jean-Claude Biver with, a decade later, “using this information to promote the watch.”

“Everyone knows the genius of Jean-Claude Biver in marketing and communication,” he wrote. “It is thanks to him that this model has been become so iconic. Who can imagine Omega without a Speedmaster?”

All-Black Watch

Keeping in step with the times has a way of opening new possibilities for watch firsts. Hublot, for example, is known for creating what it calls the first all-black watch, the Big Bang All Black in 2006, which led to imitators. “We are working a lot on research and development into movements and materials,” Ricardo Guadalupe, Hublot’s chief executive, wrote in an email. “I think we need some evolution in the industry, so why not use scratch-proof gold, carbon, ceramic, sapphire to make watch cases? This is technology that we have today but which didn’t exist 50 years ago.”

Silicon and Ceramic

In 2001 Ulysse Nardin was the first to use silicon in a watch, called the Freak, creating escapements in the lightweight but extremely hard material, eliminating the need for lubrication. It remains unclear who was the first to make a ceramic watch: Even Rado, often credited for this “first,” says its Rado Ceramic in 1986 was “possibly the first watch in the world with bracelet, crown and case made entirely of this high-tech material.” For Mr. Ghotbi of Phillips, “It was earth-shattering. It was totally novel.” But it wouldn’t be until decades later “that watchmaking adopted ceramic as a cutting-edge new material for cases,” he said. “Today everyone has it.”

All Gold, and More

F.P. Journe made news in 2004 when it became the first (and still the only, it says) manufacture to produce all of its movements in 18-karat rose gold. The independent watchmaker François-Paul Journe already had changed the watch landscape in 1999 with his invention of the tourbillon with constant force wristwatch: “It evens out the distribution of energy from the main spring to the movement” so the watch doesn’t lose accuracy, Mr. Ghotbi said. And in the late 1990s, he began “having people pay up front, at a discounted price, before the watch was made,” Mr. Ghotbi said. “It enabled Journe to become quite well known quite rapidly with enthusiasts.”

Logo

Some firsts are concepts. Bulgari was the first to engrave its logo on a bezel, in this case on its Bulgari Roma watch in 1975, an era when even a socialite like Gloria Vanderbilt was putting her name on the back pocket of bluejeans. Bulgari’s move was a branding coup; it got its name front and center and also made a connection with ancient Rome, having been inspired by coins with the name of the emperor inscribed around the edge. The design continues today in the Bulgari Bulgari collection.

Record-Holders

Firsts help a brand build an identity. When Dominique Renaud and Giulio Papi set up Renaud & Papi in 1986 to create complications for major watch companies, they quickly became known as masters of innovation. The company can boast “56 achievements and patents, including those created by Mr. Papi after the year 2000,” Mr. Renaud said by email. The company was the first to shrink a Grande Complication timepiece, previously only possible in large pocket watches, to a size that would fit in a wrist watch, which they did for IWC. Mr. Renaud left the company in 2000 — it’s now part of Audemars Piguet — and on his own invented a whole new movement with a vibrating, rather than oscillating, balance system to replace the more traditional escapement.

Sculpture

In 2013, Robert Greubel and Stephen Forsey, founders of their namesake Greubel Forsey brand, created the Art Piece 1 featuring a microsculpture by Willard Wigan within the timepiece. It came with a miniature microscope to help the wearer and admirers to appreciate the artwork.

Grande Sonnerie

A grande sonnerie clock or pocket watch automatically strikes the hours and quarters in a predetermined combination, a special feature for decades. But in 1992, the watchmaker Philippe Dufour introduced his Grande Sonnerie wristwatch. “A grand sonnerie wristwatch had never been made,” Mr. Ghotbi wrote. “He managed to miniaturize the movement, and he did it when we didn’t have computers and advanced technology. And he was the first to put double escapements in a wristwatch to increase accuracy.”

Quartz

“Seiko’s Astron was the first quartz watch that could be sold commercially in 1969,” Mr. Forster of Hodinkee said. “It was available only in gold, and very expensive, but it established Seiko as an expert is quartz technology.” It introduced Japanese watchmaking to the world, and by the 1970s quartz was in millions of inexpensive wristwatches, an offering that upended the watch market and all but destroyed the Swiss mechanical watch industry.

Last Thoughts

Seiko’s Astron shows the power that being first can have.

“Being able to be the first at anything is a big deal for a brand and translates into very good marketing,” Ms. Doerr said. “Just look at all the things named after or attributed to Breguet! Alone the fact that everyone uses the term ‘Breguet hands’ puts that brand’s name in everyone’s mouth and gives it an old, traditional and particularly inventive melody.”

And if future research discovers that another brand deserves the credit for being first, do the displaced brands acknowledge their defeat? “No,” Ms. Doerr wrote, “the brands never correct anything.”