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[Question] How did people keep track of time in the early 1900's? (alien.top)

submitted 2 years ago by trivial_vista@alien.top to c/watches@style.land

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Was wondering, because I put my mechanical watch and digital correct to the second via time.is , how people years ago had to correct time differences?

*not sure if entirly within the rules of this subreddit but just think it's interesting ..

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[–] lmmo1977@alien.top 1 points 2 years ago

Tower clocks are available since the 13th century, and pocket watches since the 16th.

[–] MyNameIsVigil@alien.top 1 points 2 years ago (2 children)

They used clocks and watches, and they set their clocks against more accurate central clocks.

[–] trivial_vista@alien.top 1 points 2 years ago (2 children)

how did this work on time zones?

[–] MyNameIsVigil@alien.top 1 points 2 years ago

Same as it does now. You either set your watch to the local time, or you set it to standard time, such as GMT.

[–] Fogbank-1@alien.top 1 points 2 years ago

Set on noontime

[–] Fogbank-1@alien.top 1 points 2 years ago

And central clocks would be set at noontime usually

[–] Fogbank-1@alien.top 1 points 2 years ago

Most people didn't really care about being too precise, it was normal for different clocks and watches to be up to 10 minutes apart.

If you were an astronomer, railway worker, navigator, or someone else who needed to be precise, determining noontime precisely was pretty basic and could be done daily.