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Horology (; related to
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...
'; ; ,
interfix In phonology, an interfix or (more commonly) linking element is a part of a word that is placed between two morphemes (such as two roots or a root and a suffix) and lacks a semantic meaning. Examples Formation of compound words In Germa ...
''-o-'', and suffix ''
-logy ''-logy'' is a suffix in the English language, used with words originally adapted from Ancient Greek ending in ('). The earliest English examples were anglicizations of the French '' -logie'', which was in turn inherited from the Latin ''-lo ...
''), . is the study of the measurement of
time Time is the continued sequence of existence and event (philosophy), events that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various me ...
.
Clock A clock or a timepiece is a device used to measure and indicate time. The clock is one of the oldest human inventions, meeting the need to measure intervals of time shorter than the natural units such as the day, the lunar month and ...
s,
watches A watch is a portable timepiece intended to be carried or worn by a person. It is designed to keep a consistent movement despite the motions caused by the person's activities. A wristwatch is designed to be worn around the wrist, attached b ...
,
clockwork Clockwork refers to the inner workings of either mechanical devices called clocks and watches (where it is also called the movement) or other mechanisms that work similarly, using a series of gears driven by a spring or weight. A clockwork mech ...
,
sundial A sundial is a horological device that tells the time of day (referred to as civil time in modern usage) when direct sunlight shines by the apparent position of the Sun in the sky. In the narrowest sense of the word, it consists of a f ...
s,
hourglass An hourglass (or sandglass, sand timer, sand clock or egg timer) is a device used to measure the passage of time. It comprises two glass bulbs connected vertically by a narrow neck that allows a regulated flow of a substance (historically sand) ...
es, clepsydras,
timer A timer is a specialized type of clock used for measuring specific time intervals. Timers can be categorized into two main types. The word "timer" is usually reserved for devices that counts down from a specified time interval, while devices th ...
s, time recorders,
marine chronometer A marine chronometer is a precision timepiece that is carried on a ship and employed in the determination of the ship's position by celestial navigation. It is used to determine longitude by comparing Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), or in the mode ...
s, and
atomic clock An atomic clock is a clock that measures time by monitoring the resonant frequency of atoms. It is based on atoms having different energy levels. Electron states in an atom are associated with different energy levels, and in transitions betwe ...
s are all examples of instruments used to measure
time Time is the continued sequence of existence and event (philosophy), events that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various me ...
. In current usage, horology refers mainly to the study of mechanical time-keeping devices, while
chronometry Chronometry (from Greek χρόνος ''chronos'', "time" and μέτρον ''metron'', "measure") is the science of the measurement of time, or timekeeping. Chronometry provides a standard of measurement for time, and therefore serves as a signifi ...
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 A fan or fanatic, sometimes also termed an aficionado or enthusiast, is a person who exhibits strong interest or admiration for something or somebody, such as a celebrity, a sport, a sports team, a genre, a politician, a book, a movie, a ...
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


Museums and libraries


In Europe

There are many horology museums and several specialized libraries devoted to the subject. One example is the
Royal Greenwich Observatory The Royal Observatory, Greenwich (ROG; known as the Old Royal Observatory from 1957 to 1998, when the working Royal Greenwich Observatory, RGO, temporarily moved south from Greenwich to Herstmonceux) is an observatory situated on a hill in ...
, which is also the source of the
Prime Meridian A prime meridian is an arbitrary meridian (a line of longitude) in a geographic coordinate system at which longitude is defined to be 0°. Together, a prime meridian and its anti-meridian (the 180th meridian in a 360°-system) form a great ...
(
longitude Longitude (, ) is a geographic coordinate that specifies the east– west position of a point on the surface of the Earth, or another celestial body. It is an angular measurement, usually expressed in degrees and denoted by the Greek let ...
0° 0' 0"), and the home of the first marine timekeepers accurate enough to determine longitude (made by
John Harrison John Harrison ( – 24 March 1776) was a self-educated English carpenter and clockmaker who invented the marine chronometer, a long-sought-after device for solving the problem of calculating longitude while at sea. Harrison's solution revo ...
). 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 British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...
, the Science Museum (London), and the Wallace Collection. The Guildhall Library in
London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
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 Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county tow ...
, 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 La Chaux-de-Fonds () is a Swiss city in the canton of Neuchâtel. It is located in the Jura mountains at an altitude of 1000 m, a few kilometers south of the French border. After Geneva, Lausanne and Fribourg, it is the fourth largest city ...
in Switzerland, which contains a public library of horology. The
Musée d'Horlogerie du Locle The Watch Museum of Le Locle ( French: Musée d'Horlogerie du Locle) is a municipal museum specializing in horology, located in Le Locle, Canton of Neuchâtel, Switzerland. It is open to the public. The museum is located in a small historic cou ...
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 La Chaux-de-Fonds () is a Swiss city in the canton of Neuchâtel. It is located in the Jura mountains at an altitude of 1000 m, a few kilometers south of the French border. After Geneva, Lausanne and Fribourg, it is the fourth largest city ...
, and at
Le Locle Le Locle (; german: Luggli) is a municipality in the Canton of Neuchâtel in Switzerland. It is situated in the Jura Mountains, a few kilometers from the city of La Chaux-de-Fonds. It is the third smallest city in Switzerland (in Switzerland ...
. In France, Besançon has the Musée du Temps (Museum of Time) in the historic Palais Grenvelle. In Serpa and
Évora Évora ( , ) is a city and a municipality in Portugal. It has 53,591 inhabitants (2021), in an area of 1307.08 km2. It is the historic capital of the Alentejo and serves as the seat of the Évora District. Due to its well-preserved old ...
, in
Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of th ...
, there is the Museu do Relógio. In Germany, there is the Deutsches Uhrenmuseum in
Furtwangen im Schwarzwald Furtwangen im Schwarzwald (; Low Alemannic: ''Furtwange im Schwarzwald'') is a small city located in the Black Forest region of southwestern Germany. Together with Villingen-Schwenningen, Furtwangen is part of the district (German: Kreis) of Sc ...
, in the
Black Forest The Black Forest (german: Schwarzwald ) is a large forested mountain range in the state of Baden-Württemberg in southwest Germany, bounded by the Rhine Valley to the west and south and close to the borders with France and Switzerland. It is ...
, which contains a public library of horology.


In North America

The two leading specialised horological museums in North America are the
National Watch and Clock Museum The National Watch and Clock Museum (NWCM), located in Columbia, Pennsylvania, is one of a very few museums in the United States dedicated solely to horology, which is the history, science and art of timekeeping and timekeepers. Like its subsidiar ...
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 Fortunat Mueller-Maerki Library & Research Center is one of the world's pre-eminent libraries devoted to horology and is located in Columbia, Pennsylvania, United States. It is operated by the National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors ...
in Columbia, Pennsylvania.


Organizations

Notable scholarly horological organizations include: *
American Watchmakers-Clockmakers Institute The American Watchmakers-Clockmakers Institute (AWCI) is a not-for-profit trade association based in the United States that is dedicated to the advancement of the modern watch industry, from which it receives a significant portion of its fundin ...
– AWCI (United States of America) *
Antiquarian Horological Society The Antiquarian Horological Society, abbreviated to AHS, is the UK-based learned society for scholars and enthusiasts of horology. Its administrative office is at 4 Lovat Lane, a listed building close to the Monument, in the City of London. In earl ...
– 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


See also


Dictionary of Horology


References


Further reading

* * Perman, Stacy
''A Grand Complication: The Race to Build the World's Most Legendary Watch''
Atria Books (Simon & Schuster), February 2013. * Berner, G.A.
''Illustrated Professional Dictionary of Horology''
Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry The Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry (FH) is the Swiss watch industry's leading trade association, headquartered in Bienne, Switzerland. The Federation is a private, professional and non-profit association. The Federation of the Swiss Watc ...
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 Project Gutenberg (PG) is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, as well as to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks." It was founded in 1971 by American writer Michael S. Hart and is the oldest digital libr ...
* Grafton, Edward
''Horology, a popular sketch of clock and watch making''
London: Aylett and Jones, 1849 {{Authority control Timekeeping