Before learning about watches you should be familiar with some of the terminology. The word horology has two meanings; it is the study or science of measuring time or the art of making clocks, watches, and devices for telling time.

Since the first appearance of man on the earth an effort has been made to measure time. The tracking of the sun`s movement across the sky, candles that were marked at intervals, oil lamps with a marked reservoir, sandglasses (hourglasses) are some of the ways in which time was measured. In the Orient knotted cords and small stone or metal mazes filled with incense that would be burned at a specific rate.

Water clockks did not depend on the observation of the sky or the sun. The earliest water clock was found in the tomb of Amenhotep I who was buried around 1500 B.C. Greeks called them clepsydras; they were stone containers with sloped sides that allowed water to drip at an almost constant rate from a small hole in the bottom. Other clepsydras were cylinders or bowl shaped designed to slowly fill up with water coming in at a near constant pace. Markings on the inside of the bowl marked the passage of the hours. Though this was used primarily at night, it is thought they were used in the day hours as well. A metal bowl with a hole the bottom was placed in a larger bowl filled with water. It would fill and then sink in a certain amount of time.