THE HISTORY OF TIMEKEEPING: From Sundials in Ancient Egypt to High-Tech Watches in the Age of Digitalisation

Punctuality at work, appointments with friends or planning daily routines. In any case, time plays an important role. How often do you think people glance at the clock on average per day? Our everyday life is determined by time. Agreed times provide important orientation in communication and living together with our fellow human beings and help to structure our own lives. What is particularly impressive is the universality of time, which transcends the most diverse languages and cultures.

Time measurement has thus proven to be one of the fundamental cultural achievements. But how did this ability develop, which nowadays seems so self-evident? The history of time measurement is a journey through the millennia, from primitive sundials and water clocks to highly modern atomic clocks.

Early beginnings: Sundials and water clocks

Already around 5000 years ago, people attempted to explain the passage of time based on natural phenomena. The movement of the sun and the phases of the moon played a central role. The Egyptians introduced the first sundial around 3500 BC by erecting shadow-casters that could divide the day into hours using sunlight. These early clocks made it possible to determine the time of day roughly, but only in sunshine. In order to also measure time at night and in cloudy skies, the water clock, also called a clepsydra, was developed in the 16th century BC and was later used in ancient Egypt and ancient Greece. Water was allowed to flow into a vessel, with time being measured based on the water level. Time measurement thus became somewhat more precise, but was still inaccurate and dependent on external influences.

Advancing precision: Mechanical clocks and pendulum clocks

In the Middle Ages, time measurement made a decisive leap with the invention of mechanical clocks in the 13th century. Mechanical clocks, which are often found in church towers, are based on a weight drive and gears. However, their accuracy was still limited and they primarily served to structure the prayer routine of the faithful. The greatest revolution in time measurement was achieved in 1656 by Dutch scientist Christiaan Huygens, who developed the first pendulum clock, which proved to be significantly more precise than its predecessors and thus laid a foundation stone for exact time measurement in the coming centuries. Pendulum clocks quickly became the standardised time measurement well into the 20th century.

Milestones of modernity: Quartz and atomic clocks

The development of the quartz clock in 1927 marked another turning point in the history of time measurement. Oscillations of a quartz crystal enable time measurement that is many times more precise than with the previous mechanical models. The invention of the atomic clock in 1949 raised the accuracy of time measurement to a completely different level. Based on oscillations of atoms, these are able to determine time to fractions of a second over millions of years with precision. Today, atomic clocks are considered the worldwide standard for measuring time and are used, among other things, to synchronise GPS systems and international time.

Bye, bye analogue: Digital clocks

The age of digitalisation takes time measurement to a new level. Digital clocks, which are controlled by quartz or atomic clocks, have become the common standard and replace wristwatches. They are always visible on all sorts of electronic devices, which are nowadays indispensable anyway, and enable us to synchronise time worldwide almost perfectly.

From the first primitive techniques to high-tech atomic clocks, humanity has constantly strived to better understand and control time. Whether a digital clock on the smartphone, a wristwatch on the wrist or a sundial in the garden – the constantly further developed methods of time measurement represent a significant pillar of our modern civilisation.