Horology

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Horology (lit. 'the study of time'; related to Latin horologium; from Ancient Greek ὡρολόγιον (hōrológion) 'instrument for telling the hour'; from ὥρα (hṓra) 'hour, time', interfix -o-, and suffix -logy) is the study of the measurement of time. Clocks, watches, clockwork, sundials, hourglasses, clepsydras, timers, time recorders, marine chronometers, and atomic clocks are all examples of instruments used to measure time. In current usage, horology refers mainly to the study of mechanical time-keeping devices, while chronometry more broadly includes electronic devices that have largely supplanted mechanical clocks for the best accuracy and precision in time-keeping.

People interested in horology are called horologists. That term is used both by people who deal professionally with timekeeping apparatuses (watchmakers, clockmakers), as well as aficionados and scholars of horology. Horology and horologists have numerous organizations, both professional associations and more scholarly societies. The largest horological membership organisation globally is the NAWCC, the National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors, which is USA based, but also has local chapters elsewhere.

History

Large watch mechanisms have been installed in the bell towers of the cities of the Holy Roman Empire since the Middle Ages (examples Strasbourg Cathedral in 1354; Stralsund in 1394; Bern in 1405 or Prague in 1410).

The manufacture of the first watch mechanisms driven by springs was established in the sixteenth century. These small mechanisms often included astronomical indications and were placed on a table. The cities of Nuremberg, Augsburg and Prague were the first centers of creation and manufacture of these mechanisms. Quite quickly, other watchmaking centers appeared throughout Europe.

The watchmaking industry began very early in Switzerland and then in England, with multiple inventions and tricks for organizing work and massing production, allowing a very advanced progress for the time, in technology as in the refinement of products, against the background of intervention by the political power.

Precision, automation, fine metalworking, have made it possible to set milestones for other strategic activities, in particular the navy, and other future mechanized industries. This history gradually accelerated from the eighteenth century with the appearance of a massive proto-industry in the Swiss mountains, which preceded the industrial revolution and resisted it for a long time.

Jeweler and watchmaker, two professions on the same market

Several regions that are part of French-speaking Switzerland have seen the start of the watchmaking industry: Geneva, the Pays de Vaud, the village of La Sagne in the mountains of Neuchâtel, the Joux Valley and its villages, Chenit, Brassus, cradle of famous watchmaking manufactures, such as Audemars Piguet, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Breguet, Blancpain. These regions have experienced an influx of French Huguenot refugees, after the edict of Fontainebleau, after a first wave of immigration arrived a century earlier, after the Saint-Barthélemy massacre in France.

As early as 1541, the reformer Jean Calvin banned signs of wealth in Geneva, forcing goldsmiths and other jewelers, who enjoy a great reputation abroad, to turn to watchmaking. The goldsmiths' regulations of 1566 prohibit the manufacture of crosses, chalices and other objects used in Catholic worship, forcing craftsmen to turn to "the watch box": the watches are inlaid in boxes, real jewels inside, which we hide in our clothes. Jean Petitot (1607-1691) and Jean-Étienne Liotard (1702-1789) would later become remarkable ambassadors of Geneva know-how in terms of enamel miniatures that adorn music boxes, mirrors and watches.

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Museums and libraries

"Universal Clock" at the Clock Museum in Zacatlán, Puebla, Mexico

In Europe

There are many horology museums and several specialized libraries devoted to the subject. One example is the Royal Greenwich Observatory, which is also the source of the Prime Meridian (longitude 0° 0' 0"), and the home of the first marine timekeepers accurate enough to determine longitude (made by John Harrison). Other horological museums in the London area include the Clockmakers' Museum, which re-opened at the Science Museum in October 2015, the horological collections at the British Museum, the Science Museum (London), and the Wallace Collection. The Guildhall Library in London contains an extensive public collection on horology. In Upton, also in the United Kingdom, at the headquarters of the British Horological Institute, there is the Museum of Timekeeping. A more specialised museum of horology in the United Kingdom is the Cuckooland Museum in Cheshire, which hosts the world's largest collection of antique cuckoo clocks.

One of the more comprehensive museums dedicated to horology is the Musée international d'horlogerie, in La Chaux-de-Fonds in Switzerland, which contains a public library of horology. The Musée d'Horlogerie du Locle is smaller but located nearby. Other good horological libraries providing public access are at the Musée international d'horlogerie in Switzerland, at La Chaux-de-Fonds, and at Le Locle.

In France, Besançon has the Musée du Temps (Museum of Time) in the historic Palais Grenvelle. In Serpa and Évora, in Portugal, there is the Museu do Relógio. In Germany, there is the Deutsches Uhrenmuseum in Furtwangen im Schwarzwald, in the Black Forest, which contains a public library of horology.

The first French watchmaker, Thomas Bayard, a native of Vézelize in Lorraine, is qualified by the register of inhabitants on November 6, 1554 as a goldsmith and an "orologist". Over the following years, he was followed by watchmakers from Autun, Dijon, and Avignon, in all for more than fifteen years2. The arrival in 1587 of Charles Cusin, who came from Autun, precedes the birth of a corporation in 1601 under the name of "Maîtrise des horlogers de Genève", on the model of the jurande des orfèvres of 15663. Access to the profession is restricted (only one apprentice per master), but open to foreigners, who founded this "Mastery". The box fitters in 1698 and the engravers in 1716 constitute in turn their own mastery, escaping the jurisdiction of watchmakers and goldsmiths.

In North America

The two leading specialised horological museums in North America are the National Watch and Clock Museum in Columbia, Pennsylvania, and the American Clock and Watch Museum in Bristol, Connecticut. Another museum dedicated to clocks is the Willard House and Clock Museum in Grafton, Massachusetts. One of the most comprehensive horological libraries open to the public is the National Watch and Clock Library in Columbia, Pennsylvania.

Organizations

Notable scholarly horological organizations include:

American Watchmakers-Clockmakers Institute – AWCI (United States of America)
Antiquarian Horological Society – AHS (United Kingdom)
British Horological Institute – BHI (United Kingdom)
Chronometrophilia (Switzerland)
Deutsche Gesellschaft für Chronometrie – DGC (Germany)
Horological Society of New York – HSNY (United States of America)
National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors – NAWCC (United States of America)
UK Horology - UK Clock & Watch Company based in Bristol

World exhibitions

Geneva Time Exhibition
Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie (SIHH)

Glossary

Term	Explanation
Chablon	French term for a watch movement (not including the dial and hands), that is not completely assembled.
Ébauche	French term (commonly used in English-speaking countries) for a movement blank, i.e., an incomplete watch movement sold as a set of loose parts—comprising the main plate, bridges, train, winding and setting mechanism, and regulator. The timing system, escapement, and mainspring, however, are not parts of the ébauche.
Établissage	French term for the method of manufacturing watches or movements by assembling their various components. It generally includes the following operations: receipt, inspection and stocking of the "ébauche", the regulating elements and the other parts of the movement and of the make-up; assembling; springing and timing; fitting the dial and hands; casing; final inspection before packing and dispatching.
Établisseur	French term for a watch factory that assembles watches from components it buys from other suppliers.
Factory, works	In the Swiss watch industry, the term manufacture is used of a factory that manufacturers watches almost completely, as distinct from an atelier de terminage, which only assembles, times, and fits hands and casing.
Manufacture d'horlogerie	French term for a watch factory that produces components (particularly the "ébauche") for its products (watches, alarm and desk clocks, etc.).
Remontoire	French term for a small secondary source of power, typically a weight or spring, which runs the timekeeping mechanism and is itself periodically rewound by the timepiece's main power source, such as a mainspring.
Terminage	French term denoting the process of assembling watch parts for the account of a producer.
Termineur	French term for an independent watchmaker (or workshop) engaged in assembling watches, either wholly or in part, for the account of an "établisseur" or a "manufacture", who supply the necessary loose parts. See "atelier de terminage" above.

References

Harper, Douglas. "horology". Online Etymology Dictionary.
ὡρολόγιον, ὥρα. Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; A Greek–English Lexicon at the Perseus Project.

Maria Noyen (4 Nov 2021). "The Queen has a specialist team of clock masters that spend 40 hours tweaking over 1,000 clocks in her residences for daylight-saving time". Insider.
Perman, Stacy, A Grand Complication: The Race to Build the World's Most Legendary Watch, Atria Books (Simon & Schuster), February 2013. ISBN 9781439190081
Berner, G.A., Illustrated Professional Dictionary of Horology, Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry FH 1961 - 2012
Daniels, George, Watchmaking, London: Philip Wilson Publishers, 1981 (reprinted June 15, 2011)
Beckett, Edmund, A Rudimentary Treatise on Clocks, Watches and Bells, 1903, from Project Gutenberg
Grafton, Edward, Horology, a popular sketch of clock and watch making, London: Aylett and Jones, 1849

Time

Key concepts

Measurement
and standards

Chronometry	UTC UT TAI Unit of time Orders of magnitude (time)
Measurement systems	Italian six-hour clock Thai six-hour clock 12-hour clock 24-hour clock Relative hour Daylight saving time Chinese Decimal Hexadecimal Hindu Metric Roman Sidereal Solar Time zone
Calendars	Main types Solar Lunar Lunisolar Gregorian Julian Hebrew Islamic Solar Hijri Chinese Hindu Panchang Maya List
Clocks	Main types astronomical astrarium atomic quantum hourglass marine sundial watch mechanical stopwatch water-based Cuckoo clock Digital clock Grandfather clock History Timeline

Philosophy of time

Human experience
and use of time

Time in science

Geology	Geological time age chron eon epoch era period Geochronology Geological history of Earth
Physics	Absolute space and time Arrow of time Chronon Coordinate time Instant Proper time Spacetime Theory of relativity Time domain Time translation symmetry Time reversal symmetry
Other fields	Chronological dating Chronobiology Circadian rhythms Clock reaction Glottochronology Time geography

v t e Time measurement and standards
Chronometry Orders of magnitude Metrology
International standards	Coordinated Universal Time offset UT ΔT DUT1 International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service ISO 31-1 ISO 8601 International Atomic Time 12-hour clock 24-hour clock Barycentric Coordinate Time Barycentric Dynamical Time Civil time Daylight saving time Geocentric Coordinate Time International Date Line IERS Reference Meridian Leap second Solar time Terrestrial Time Time zone 180th meridian
Obsolete standards	Ephemeris time Greenwich Mean Time Prime meridian
Time in physics	Absolute space and time Spacetime Chronon Continuous signal Coordinate time Cosmological decade Discrete time and continuous time Proper time Theory of relativity Time dilation Gravitational time dilation Time domain Time-translation symmetry T-symmetry
Horology	Clock Astrarium Atomic clock Complication History of timekeeping devices Hourglass Marine chronometer Marine sandglass Radio clock Watch stopwatch Water clock Sundial Dialing scales Equation of time History of sundials Sundial markup schema
Calendar	Gregorian Hebrew Hindu Holocene Islamic (lunar Hijri) Julian Solar Hijri Astronomical Dominical letter Epact Equinox Intercalation Julian day Leap year Lunar Lunisolar Solar Solstice Tropical year Weekday determination Weekday names
Archaeology and geology	Chronological dating Geologic time scale International Commission on Stratigraphy
Astronomical chronology	Galactic year Nuclear timescale Precession Sidereal time
Other units of time	Instant Flick Shake Jiffy Second Minute Moment Hour Day Week Fortnight Month Year Olympiad Lustrum Decade Century Saeculum Millennium
Related topics	Chronology Duration music Mental chronometry Decimal time Metric time System time Time metrology Time value of money Timekeeper

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