Which European country first introduced wristwatches to China and why is it called 手表?

Question

As a native French speaker studying Mandarin Chinese, I couldn't help but notice that the Chinese term for wristwatch, 手表 (hand-show), is quite similar to the French term "une montre" (a "shower"/display). After further inspection, I notice that other European languages' term are quite different. All of Spanish, Portuguese and German have a term that translates roughly to "arm clock" and English it's "watch".

Is the term 手表 actually originated from French or is it a pure coincidence? Was it French who introduced wristwatches to China, and if so, why France and not Chinese colonizers such as the United Kingdom or Portugal?

Answer 1

Each character in Chinese can mean many different things. In this context, your translation of 表 as "show" is not correct. (For example, 表哥 does not translate as "show elder brother".)

Here with 手表, 表 was originally from 圭表, which was a sort of ancient sundial for telling the seasons.

And in 圭表, 表 referred to the gnomon:

An object such as a pillar or a rod that is used to tell time by the shadow it casts when the sun shines on it, especially the pointer on a sundial.

Today, 表 can refer to any measurement device, hence also 电表 (electricity meter), 水表 (water meter), 钟表 ("bell meter"--or clock or watch), and 手表 ("hand meter"--or watch).

https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E8%A1%A8/

Answer 2

I couldn't find anything that suggests the introduction of wristwatches to China was a markedly "historical" event, unlike the introduction of European astronomical techniques to the Chinese imperial courts by Jesuit missionaries. I suspect wristwatches just diffused into China as part of global trade towards the end of the 19th century, rather than being introduced by colonisation.

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As for 「表」 in the word 「手表」, that is highly unlikely to be a calque from a European language.

「手表」 is a Simplified Chinese rendering of the orthodox spelling 「手錶」, where 「錶」 (note the additional 「金」 component, meaning metal) was likely invented to specialise 「表」 to mean time-keeping device, by means of similarities to the word rendered as 「鐘表」 (striking clock; 「鐘」 means bell).

In the context of a measurement device, 「表」 is a morpheme roughly equivalent to English ~meter (e.g. thermometer) or ~graph (e.g. chronograph). This morpheme is ancient; even in the narrow sense of time-keeping devices, it is found in received texts dating back from BCE. From Master Lü's Spring and Autumn Annals:

《呂氏春秋・功名》

由其道，功名之不可得逃，猶表之與影，若呼之與響。

An orthodox attainment of fame and rank is inseparable from a track record of accomplishments, just like sundials are inseparable from the shadows they cast, and a person's yell is inseparable from the echoes that follow.

From Records of the Grand Historian:

《史記・司馬穰苴列傳》

穰苴先馳至軍，立表下漏待賈。

Sima Rangju arrived to the army encampment with haste, and erected sundials and water clocks, waiting for Zhuang Jia.