Watch

Time has always been subject to measurement. In ancient times it was measured by comparison with how long a routine task or natural process took to complete, by observing the orbits of the sun and moon and by placing sticks in the ground and watching their shadows. In classical times came the more sophisticated hourglass and water clock. For them hours were still variable. Since twelve hours were attributed each to daytime and nighttime, they were longer in summer and shorter in winter.

In the thirteenth century the first mechanical clocks were installed in public buildings. They did not have minute hands and continued to mark variable hours. Much like the bells they replaced, they coordinated life generally rather than closely. By the fifteenth century domestic clocks were in evidence, though initially these had ornamental as much as practical value. By the seventeenth century scientists regarded the clock as the machine par excellence, and in the following centuries business people made it the pivotal machine in the Industrial Revolution.

Following the introduction of pocket watches in the late eighteenth century, the first wristwatch was made in Switzerland in 1865, and by 1880 these were being mass-produced for the middle class in North America. During the last two decades the digital watch has largely replaced the traditional analog version. Watches have become increasingly worn by everyone, including children. Meanwhile the spread of the watch into less-developed countries symbolizes and hastens the ongoing westernization of the whole world (see Global Village).

Impact and Significance

The spread of wristwatches introduced more personal habits of time keeping and made possible greater regulation of time in social life generally. People became more conscious of time, especially smaller units of time, and punctuality became a virtue or obsession. As long as we had analog watches with their circular hand movements—now enjoying something of a comeback—timepieces gave some sense of the sweep or flow of time. In the digital watch this evocation of daily rhythms is replaced by a mere succession of numbers. The advent of beepers on watches has only reinforced our awareness of passing time—whether we choose it or not—with hourly precision.

Particularly strange is the way the watch’s mathematical or atomized view of time intrudes even upon our nonworking hours. This happens at night, even when sleeping, and during weekends and vacation, when strict knowledge of time is really unnecessary. These are periods when we could slip into a different mode of time. Our general failure to do this indicates how strong a hold the watch’s view of time has upon us. Already by the eighteenth century Jonathan Swift, in his book Gulliver’s Travels, foresaw this. After carefully observing Gulliver’s behavior, the Lilliputians conclude that his pocket watch must be his god. Why? They ascribed divinity to his watch because Gulliver referred to it more than to anything else during the day in deciding what he should do! This forces us to ask how much our watches have become a kind of idol, dictating what we should do and on whose altar we sacrifice so many people and priorities.

Protest and Response

It is not surprising that some people have resisted the advance of mechanical timepieces. This began with the romantic poets and artists in the late eighteenth century who drew attention to the greater importance of inner, personal or subjective time over against its artificial objective measurement. When we are experiencing life deeply or fully, we are little conscious of the passing seconds, minutes and hours. Philosophers such as Henri Bergson and Martin Heidegger also searched for a new sense of time far removed from the watch. In the sixties young people in the counterculture “dropped out” of the watch-driven society and opted for a style of life governed by more natural rhythms. These days many people pursue mystical experiences in the hope of entering into a different, timeless, state.

Yet the watch has its place, not always on our wrists perhaps, but in the general scheme of our individual and social lives. Despite its coming from a preindustrial time, the Bible contains time indicators of various kinds, for example, the parts of the day and night called watches. Today the watch is the literal heartbeat of the city, and without it considerable chaos would reign. Without it we would be unable to effectively coordinate large movements of people across great distances into complex patterns of work and play.

The danger is that the watch too often becomes a master rather than a servant. We allow it to determine how much time we spend with spouses, friends and children; when we eat, rest and sleep; how long church lasts; what time we spend on various important activities; how much we can pack into a particular day. Generally it even dictates when and how long we give time to God!

Conclusion

There is a place for the watch, but it is a secondary one. In our watch-driven society we need to put the watch in its proper place. There are various ways we can do this. We should take off our watches when we don’t need them and, when necessary, learn to judge the general passing of time by more natural means. We could do without the watch in church and in our communal small groups; there we enter into God’s time when, since God does not wear a watch, whatever happens should take its own appropriate divine length. This is something charismatic Christians are beginning to learn anew, though African-American Christians have known it all along.

As far as we can, we should also allow time given to relationships and responsibilities to be determined by how long they need rather than how much time the watch tells us we have. Let the watch take its cues from the significant events in our lives, not the other way round. One way of doing this is to put our watches into our pockets during such occasions, only taking them out when they are over or when we sense we must attend to another responsibility.

» See also: Rest

» See also: Stewardship

» See also: Technology

» See also: Time

» See also: Waiting

References and Resources

R. Banks, The Tyranny of Time (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1983); H. J. Cowan, Time and Its Measurement from Stone Age to Nuclear Age (Cleveland: World Publishing, 1958); D. S. Landes, Revolution in Time: Clocks and the Making of the Modern World (Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap, 1983); M. O’Malley, Keeping Watch: A History of American Time (New York: Penguin, 1990); K. Welch, Time Measurement: An Introductory Essay (Newtown Abbott, U.K.: David & Charles, 1972).

—Robert Banks