Some time back, Time Magazine ran a promotional campaign that simply said “Only Time Will Tell”. Yes, we say that time heals everything and that good things will happen to us in time. But just what is time? It is still a mystery, though we know that it is one of the dimensions that govern the universe. We feel its passing and know that we can never make up for lost time. In short, time is of the essence.
Can we travel through time? Yes, you are travelling through time as you read this. But can you go back through time “Back to the Future” style? Some scientists believe that it will be possible one day. Science fiction is one genre where this is commonplace. But there is another way to go back in time – our memories and physical mementoes such as photographs and videos.
Even if we do not know exactly what time is, we still need to keep track of it. Our universe is around 15 billion years old, but humans discovered the concept of time only as recently as 15,000 to 10,000 years ago. A team of archaeologists at the University of Birmingham may have found the earliest evidence of human timekeeping activity. The researchers said that they have discovered a 10,000-year-old Lunar calendar, etched in the Earth near Aberdeen, on Scotland’s North Sea Coast. Stonehenge, also in the UK, is believed to have served a similar purpose. The earliest solid archaeological evidence of timekeeping, are the calendars used by the Egyptians and Babylonians 5,000 years ago. The sundials used by the Egyptians are believed to be the first “clocks” in the modern sense of the word.
But before getting ahead of ourselves, one cannot keep time in the modern sense of the word without using a calendar, which is a surprisingly recent invention. However, even the ancients knew that one could measure the passage time using the movement of the Sun and the Moon. This, in a way, is still the foundation of the modern calendar. The Roman calendar was reformed by Julius Caesar in 45 BC. This Julian calendar was no longer dependent on the observation of the New Moon but simply followed an algorithm of introducing a leap day every four years. The Gregorian calendar was introduced as a refinement of the Julian calendar in 1582, and is today in worldwide use as the “de facto” calendar for secular purposes.
It went into effect in October 1582 following an edict issued by Pope Gregory XIII, which introduced it as a modification of, and replacement for, the Julian calendar. The principal change was to space leap years differently so as to make the average calendar year 365.2425 days long.
It is from this calendar that we get the modern notion of timekeeping – there are 12 months in a year (with February having 28 days normally and 29 days in a leap year), 24 hours in a day, sixty minutes in an hour and sixty seconds in a minute. Twenty four hours denotes the time it takes for the Earth to rotate on its axis relative to the Sun, with the side facing away from the Sun experiencing night or darkness.
Telling the time is one of those essential skills we pick up in the early grades, with teachers using a “training clock” whose hands can be moved at will. Peter Henlein, a locksmith from Nuremburg, Germany, is credited with the invention of modern-day clock and he was also the originator of entire clock making industry that we have today. The first clock by Henlein was made in 1510 (even before the advent of the Gregorian Calendar) and by 1541 he was well known for his art and was called to different parts of Europe to design the most beautiful clocks for palaces and big clock towers. He also designed the first watches, though they were never worn on the wrist at the time.
The first wristwatch (as we know them today) was invented around 1810, almost three centuries after modern clocks made their mark. Abraham-Louis Breguet (1747 – 1823) was a native of Neuchâtel, Switzerland who plied his trade as a watchmaker in Paris and who today is regarded as one the most important figures in the history of timekeeping. The most influential contribution Breguet made to the evolution of timekeeping was the invention of the first timepiece to be worn on the wrist.
In Breguet’s era, portable timekeepers were mounted on chains and fobs and almost exclusively worn by gentlemen in the pockets of their waistcoats. Although the watch industry today is heavily tilted towards men, it was a woman who commissioned the first wristwatch – Queen Caroline Murat of Naples, the sister of perhaps the most famous of Breguet’s roster of royal clients, Napoleon Bonaparte. This watch has unfortunately been lost to the sands of time. But Breguet still lives on in the watches made by the company he founded. And naturally, Switzerland still dominates the watch industry, with Germany trailing closely behind.
The world of watches is really fascinating – from simple, inexpensive watches to ones that cost millions of dollars, but they all tell the time in their unique way. This page is a page dedicated to watches and watch enthusiasts. As we go on, we will explore the world of horology in detail. We will keep you updated on the latest trends in the watch world. We welcome your contributions and your watch stories. So take your time and read on. And ‘watch’ this space.
Pramod de Silva
