Per the Oxford English dictionary the definition of time is ‘the indefinite continued progress of existence and events in the past, present, and future regarded as a whole.’ That’s all good and well but have you ever wondered when people actually started to record time and why it flies by so fast? The latter is a question one will never know the answer to but the former can date back as the far as the eighth century. Save some of your own time by discovering how time passed through water, sun and earth to eventually end up on our wrists!
Drip Drop its Water o’clock
Who would have thought one of the first ways of recording time would come in drips and drabs? The Chinese did and were the first to perfect the first way of successful time keeping in the 3000bc with the water clock. It was also the one of the first ways of recording that did not require the observation of real people. A simple water clock is a contraption that slowly drips water from a small hole from one vessel to another that is stationed below. By marking the water level in the lower tank after a day had passed then separating the water into equal portions, the Chinese clock enthusiasts could use this device to tell time as accurately as they could.
This very first method has been proven that the water clock was correct to within 15 minutes every day. Not bad for a first attempt and being fashionably late is always ok at the end of the day. Progression was steadily made as they began to create more sophisticated and a little more accurate version. All time was let loose however during the reign of K’ai-Yuan, in the 8th century, when Buddhist monk I-Hising began work on a bronze model of the celestial sphere using drips of water to move a wheel mechanism and being to keep track of hours, days and years. What’s more it was even connected to a bell drum to provide a quirky little chirp every fifteen minutes. Ding Dong thank you China!
Shine bright like a Sundial
Let’s now to travel on over to Egypt who were the first to create the sundial. You’ve probably seen one but ever wondered how they work exactly? Constructed in the shape of a T, a sundial is comprised of a cross bar and vertical stick where five hours are written. In the morning, the stick was placed facing east and in the afternoon, it was moved on over to the west side. As shadows were cast from the sun, the Egyptians used this to calculate time depending on the length of the shadow. Dating back to around 1500B.C. in central Europe the Sundial was the most commonly used way to tell time, even after the invention of the mechanical clock in the 14th century.
Let’s get Mechanical
The early 1500s finally saw the creation of a spring powered clock which meant clocks could be smaller and easier to move. Following suite, the 1600s was when the pendulum clock was made and were accurate within less than ten seconds a day. In the late 17th century clocks with long cases appeared and around 1775 the cuckoo clock was invented. Next the stop watch and finally the quartz crystal watch was invented in 1929 and the atomic clock was invented in 1955. It was also around the late nineteenth and 20th centuries that we saw the arrival of shiny and luxurious watch brands including Omega, Piaget, Cartier and Rolex who evidently made us all realise the real luxury of time!
Today having a nice way to the tell time is eminent whether that be via a sundial, a water clock or a nifty little wrist or pocket watch, don’t be late and head to online auction now where you will discover range of timepieces from the past, present and maybe even the future at catawiki.com!