Tools & manufacturing · c. 1280
Mechanical clock
A verge escapement divides time into equal ticks.
Weight-driven tower clocks with verge escapements appear in Europe around 1280. Standardized hours reorganized work, and clockmakers became the precision mechanics of the industrial age.
What it built on 2
What it led to 4
Related measurements
The dashed line marks when it first worked.
Annual working hours in the UK since 1260 Latest: 1.67k hours per worker (2016) Source: Our World in Data