he measurement of time was one of man’s earliest obsession, and the desire to create ever greater precision in timekeeping has inspired generations in the field of mathematics and science. Equally, each advance has produced accompanying works of great craftsmanship that have cloaked objects of sober function with a mantle of outstanding beauty.

Eric Bruton traces the path of this development from the simple shepard’s dial made of clay, through the heavy iron Gothic turret clocks, and the rush of horological activity that followed the invention of the pendulum by Christian Huygens in the mid-seventeenth century, to the perfection of the escapement led to the complex electronic circuitry of our modern clocks and watches.

The word ‘clock’ is used in a generic sense because its current meaning of ‘timekeeping’ is understood by anyone knowing the English Language. It has been adopted by various of the science, such as biology, which has biological clocks, and astronomy with clock stars. Botanists call the seeding head of a dandelion a clock because its seeds are released at intervals by  the wind.