A watched clock

“The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once.”
~Einstein
Audible timekeeping was one of the earliest forms of communicating the time over long distances. The first clocks struck the hours, but had no faces from which the time could be read. Audible time signals allow for the communication of the time over great distances, in the dark or other situations of impaired visibility, and for those navigating at sea. A modern example (the hammer strikes the vase on the hour.)


Church bells were used to mark the canonical hours, in order to call the community to prayer.


Time was also marked by the firing of a time cannon or time gun. This still occurs in Edinburgh, Santiago and Capetown. They fire daily, but each at a different time.


This map was used to determine the exact time through location in relation to how fast the sound of the cannon traveled.