The History and Science of Timekeeping

Humans have measured time for thousands of years, with each innovation enabling new possibilities in science, navigation, and daily life.

Ancient Timekeeping

Sundials were among the first timekeeping devices, used in ancient Egypt around 1500 BCE. Water clocks (clepsydra) allowed time measurement at night. Candle clocks and hourglasses provided portable timekeeping.

Mechanical Clocks

The first mechanical clocks appeared in European monasteries in the 13th century. Pendulum clocks, invented by Christiaan Huygens in 1656, dramatically improved accuracy. Spring-driven watches made portable timekeeping possible.

The Stopwatch

The first stopwatch was invented in 1776 by Jean-Moyes Pouzait. Modern stopwatches achieve millisecond precision. Digital stopwatches in the 1970s replaced mechanical ones in most applications.

Atomic Clocks

Cesium atomic clocks, developed in 1955, define the second itself. They lose less than one second in millions of years. GPS satellites carry atomic clocks, and the entire internet depends on precise time synchronization.

Digital Age

Computers track time using crystal oscillators and network time protocols. Our Stopwatch and Timer tools use the high-resolution timers built into modern browsers, providing precision sufficient for most practical purposes.