Around the year 1200AD, the Benedictine monks developed an ingenious mechanism, the verge escapement, that would eventually lead to the first alarm clock and make the monks the first humans to devise a system of telling time not directly related to the cycles of nature.

In 1370, King Charles V of France decreed that all Parisian church bells must ring simultaneously with the royal palaces; this ended the conventional ringing of bells at canonical hours as decreed by the church.

Time and our ability to follow it now control many aspects of our lives. For Neil Postman, ‘The instrument conceived for the service of God became a tool of capitalists in the service of mammon.’ With ‘clocking on’ devices in the workspace, train timetables, and meetings around the globe, the need to know the time in modern society is an essential skill.

Our constant need to know the time has driven timekeeping instruments to become both more accurate and portable. From clocks on churches and in town squares to grandfather clocks in the home to pocket watches and wristwatches, our fascination has resulted in a natural progression.