The initial reaction to the early designs was encouraging, and Jones was pleased with the level of intrigue he created, not least after his work was featured on the influential watch blog The Watchismo Times. For further inspiration, Jones then enlisted the help of a few people outside the watch world. The cyclist Graeme Obree, famous for his hour-long endurance stints on his bike, helped with a watch called The Hour. The plan was to note the passing of each one with a significant word, and to spend the time considering its worth. The words included ‘value’, ‘enjoy’, ‘seize’, ‘reflect’ and ‘engage’. There was also Dawn West Dusk East, a watch designed with the artist Brian Catling that attempts to slow down time by showing one dot revolving every 12 hours; the time would be about 4.15 or about 4.30 but you couldn’t be sure, and would it matter?
Another collaborator was Professor Jonathan Gershuny, the co-director of the Centre for Time Use Research at the University of Oxford. The Average Day consisted of a regular set of watch hands and two rings of information on the dial. There were no numbers, but instead the wearer was informed what the average European would be doing at any particular time. On the a.m. dial, 7.30–8 is ‘Wash’, 8.15–9 is ‘Travel’, 10–11 is ‘Work’, 11–12 ‘Meeting’, while the p.m. dial becomes 12.15–1 ‘Eat’, 5.15–6.30 ‘Social Life’, 8.15–11 ‘TV’. The challenge to the wearer is to break free from the routine.
The business found its customers. The watches, produced in editions of 100, cost between £115 and £600, with most around £200. Profits went back into new designs and new lathes and printing equipment, so that by the spring of 2015 Jones was making and assembling all the parts apart from the basic quartz or mechanical movements (which came either from the Far East or Switzerland). And in this way Mr Jones Watches contributed to the resurrection of the British watch industry, and made his customers think about time in an original way. The obsession remains, but the obsession is slightly different.
My favourite Jones design was called The Cyclops, which he says was ‘basically ripped off’ from a watch called the Chromachron. The Chromachron had been designed by Tian Harlan in Switzerland, and told the time by revealing a different colour segment each hour. The Cyclops did the same in a more subtle way, with a black hoop slowly passing over a disc with small dots of colour at the perimeter of its dial. There was no minute hand, so the user would experience a vaguer sense of time passing, something its maker called ‘a relaxed kind of accuracy’.
This was an extraordinary thing to contemplate, a timekeeper without a minute hand. We have spent more than two industrialised centuries battling time – running for the train, striving for the tape, holding on against a streamlined world – and now there was a chance to let it all slide. It would be like leaving the city to plough the fields. Who among us would be equal to the task?
Acknowledgements and Further Reading
A broad narrative history such as this requires a lot of backup, both printed and personal, and I’m grateful to everyone who offered help and suggestions along the way. The idea for the book came from Anya Serota, and was guided through to completion (and enriched greatly along the way) by my editor Jenny Lord. The entire dedicated team who worked on the book at Canongate is worthy of praise, so thank you Jamie Byng, Jenny Todd, Anna Frame, Jenny Fry, Alan Trotter, Vicki Rutherford, Laura Cole and Allegra Le Fanu. Seán Costello conducted a fastidious copy edit, and Pete Adlington designed the alluring jacket. As always, my agent Rosemary Scoular was an invaluable support.
The subject of time is so vast that I was always pleased to receive thoughts on direction. Jay Griffiths, who has written enticingly about the subject herself, first came up with the parameters of obsession. Not everyone I interviewed for this book appears in the final version, so I would also like to thank Terry Quinn, Lucy Pilpin, Lucy Fleischman, David Spears and Cat Gibbard. My friend Andrew Bud read the manuscript for errors only he could spot, and once again he’s saved my blushes. And for suggestions of books, angles and contacts thanks to Naomi Frears, John Frears-Hogg, Mark Osterfield, Sam Thorne, Fanny Singer, Daniel Pick, Brad Auerbach, Jeremy Anning and Kim Ellsworth.
Small sections of the watch and photo chapters have previously appeared in a different form in Esquire, and in Johnny Davis I am blessed with a particularly accommodating editor there. An earlier version of the Poundbury story previously appeared in BA High Life, so thank you Paul Clements. Many thanks to Kipper Williams for the inspired Mayfly cartoon that opens the first chapter.
Many of the books that follow were sourced from the London Library, one of our great research institutions, and as ever I am grateful to its staff. Rather than a complete bibliography, the list is intended as an inspiration for further exploration.
Andrews, Geoff, The Slow Food Story: Politics and Pleasure (Pluto Press: London, 2008)
Bannister, Roger, The First Four Minutes (G.P. Putnam’s Sons: New York, 1955)
—— Twin Tracks (The Robson Press: London, 2014)
Bartky, Ian R., Selling the True Time: Nineteenth-Century Timekeeping in America (Stanford University Press: Stanford, 2000)
Beethoven, Ludwig van, Letters, Journals and Conversations, edited, translated and introduced by Michael Hamburger (Thames and Hudson: London, 1951)
Brookman, Philip (ed.), Helios: Eadweard Muybridge in a Time of Change (Corcoran Gallery of Art Exhibition Catalogue: Washington DC, 2010)
Brownlow, Kevin, The Parade’s Gone By (University of California Press: Berkeley, 1992)
Burgess, Richard James, The History of Music Production (Oxford University Press: Oxford, 2014)
Conrad, Joseph, The Secret Agent (J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd: London, 1907)
Crary, Jonathan, 24/7: Terminal Capitalism and the Ends of Sleep (Verso Books: London, 2013)
Dardis, Tom, Harold Lloyd: The Man on the Clock (Penguin: New York, 1983)
Dohrn-van Rossum, Gerhard, History of the Hour: Clocks and Modern Temporal Orders (University of Chicago Press: London, 1996)
Eagleman, David, The Brain: The Story of You (Canongate: Edinburgh and London, 2015)
Falk, Dan, In Search of Time: Journeys Along a Curious Dimension (National Maritime Museum: London, 2009)
Freeman, Eugene and Sellars, Wilfrid (eds), Basic Issues in the Philosophy of Time (Open Court: Illinois, 1971)
Garfield, Simon, The Last Journey of William Huskisson (Faber and Faber: London, 2002)
Gleick, James, Time Travel (Fourth Estate: London, 2016)
Glennie, Paul and Thrift, Nigel, Shaping the Day: A History of Timekeeping in England and Wales 1300–1800 (Oxford University Press: Oxford, 2009)
Griffiths, Jay, Pip Pip: A Sideways Look at Time (Flamingo: London, 1999)
Groom, Amelia (ed.), Time: Documents of Contemporary Art (Whitechapel Gallery: London, 2013)
Grubbs, David, Records Ruin the Landscape: John Cage, the Sixties, and Sound Recording (Duke University Press: Durham, NC, and London, 2014)
Hammond, Claudia, Time Warped: Unlocking the Mysteries of Time Perception (Canongate: Edinburgh and London, 2013)
Hassig, Ross, Time, History, and Belief in Aztec and Colonial Mexico (University of Texas Press: Austin, 2001)
Hoffman, Eva, Time (Profile Books: London, 2011)
Honoré, Carl, In Praise of Slow: How a Worldwide Movement is Challenging the Cult of Speed (Orion: London, 2004)
—— The Slow Fix: Lasting Solutions in a Fast-Moving World (William Collins: London, 2014)
Howse, Derek, Greenwich Time and the Discovery of the Longitude (Oxford University Press: Oxford, 1980)
Jones, Tony, Splitting the Second: The Story of Atomic Time (Institute of Physics Publishing: Bristol and Philadelphia, 2000)
Kanigel, Robert, The One Best Way: Frederick Winslow Taylor and the Enigma of Efficiency (Little, Brown: London, 1997)
Kelly, Thomas Forrest, First Nights: Five Musical Premieres (Yale University Press: New Haven, Conn., 2000)
Kern, Stephen, The Culture of Time and Space 1880–1918 (Weidenfeld and Nicolson
: London, 1983)
Klein, Stefan, Time: A User’s Guide (Penguin: London, 2008)
Koger, Gregory, Filibustering: A Political History of Obstruction in the House and Senate (University of Chicago Press: Chicago, 2010)
Landes, David S., Revolution in Time: Clocks and the Making of the Modern World (Belknap Press of Harvard University Press: Cambridge, Mass., 1983)
Levine, Robert, A Geography of Time: On Tempo, Culture and the Pace of Life: The Temporal Misadventures of a Social Psychologist (Basic Books: London, 1997)
Lewisohn, Mark, The Beatles – All These Years: Volume One: Tune In (Little, Brown: London, 2013)
Macey, Samuel L., The Dynamics of Progress: Time, Method and Measure (University of Georgia Press: Athens and London, 1989)
McEwen, Christian, World Enough & Time: On Creativity and Slowing Down (Bauhan Publishing: Peterborough, New Hampshire, 2011)
Mumford, Lewis, Art and Technics (Oxford University Press: Oxford, 1952)
O’Malley, Michael, Keeping Watch: A History of American Time (Viking Penguin: New York, 1990)
Perovic, Sanja, The Calendar in Revolutionary France: Perceptions of Time in Literature, Culture, Politics (Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 2012)
Phillips, Bob, 3:59.4: The Quest for the Four-Minute Mile (The Parrs Wood Press: Manchester, 2004)
Pirsig, Robert M., Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (The Bodley Head: London, 1974)
Quinn, Terry, From Artefacts to Atoms: The BIPM and the Search for Ultimate Measurement Standards (Oxford University Press USA: New York, 2011)
Rooney, David, Ruth Belville: The Greenwich Time Lady (National Maritime Museum: London, 2008)
Rosa, Hartmut, Social Acceleration: A New Theory of Modernity (Columbia University Press: New York, 2013)
Sachs, Curt, Rhythm and Tempo: A Study in Music History (Columbia University Press: New York, 1953)
Shaw, Matthew, Time and the French Revolution: The Republican Calendar, 1989–Year XIV (Boydell Press: Woodbridge, 2011)
Sobel, Dava, Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time (Penguin: London, 1995)
Solnit, Rebecca, Motion Studies: Eadweard Muybridge and the Technological Wild West (Bloomsbury: London, 2003)
Vance, Jeffrey and Lloyd, Suzanne, Harold Lloyd: Master Comedian (Harry N. Abrams Inc.: New York, 2002)
Whitrow, G.J., What Is Time? (Thames and Hudson: London, 1972)
Young, Michael Dunlop, The Metronomic Society: Natural Rhythms and Human Timetables (Thames and Hudson: London, 1988)
Zimbardo, Philip and Boyd, John, The Time Paradox: Using the New Psychology of Time to Your Advantage (Rider Books: London, 2010)
Permission Credits
While every effort has been made to contact copyright-holders of illustrations, the author and publishers would be grateful for information about any illustrations where they have been unable to trace them, and would be glad to make amendments to further editions.
here Courtesy of Kipper Williams, here Courtesy of Simon Garfield, here Courtesy of Simon Garfield, here Courtesy of Case Antiques, Inc. Auctions & Appraisals, here Courtesy of Bettmann, Getty Images, here © 2011 The Harold Lloyd Entertainment, Inc., here Courtesy of Timezone.com and the TimeZone Watch School, here Courtesy of Norman Potter, Hulton Archive, Getty Images, here Courtesy of Simon Garfield, here Courtesy of Imagno, Hulton Archive, Getty Images, here Courtesy of Space Frontiers, Archive Photos, Getty Images, here Courtesy of Tim P. Whitby, Getty Images Entertainment, Getty Images, here Courtesy of Pool, Getty Images Entertainment, Getty Images, here Courtesy of Trustees of the British Museum, here Courtesy of www.cartoonstock.com
INDEX
References to images are in italics; references to footnotes are indicated by n.
4’33 (Cage) ref1
24 Hour Psycho (film) ref1
Abbey Road Studios ref1, ref2
About Time (film) ref1
accidents ref1
Adams, Eddie ref1n
advertising ref1, ref2, ref3
Aeternitas Mega 4 watch ref1n
Aldrin, Buzz ref1, ref2, ref3
Allen, Dave ref1
Allen, William F. ref1
Allen, Woody ref1
Ancient Greece ref1
Andersson, Arne ref1
Andersson, David ref1
Angelov, Kosio ref1
Animal Locomotion (Muybridge) ref1
animals ref1
anthropology ref1
antiquities ref1
Apple Watch ref1, ref2
apps ref1, ref2
architecture ref1, ref2
Arena (documentary series) ref1
Aristotle ref1, ref2
Arlaud, Abraham ref1
Armstrong, Neil ref1
art ref1, ref2
Associated Press (AP) ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4
astronomy ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7
Ataturk, Mustafa Kemal ref1
atomic power ref1
auctions ref1, ref2, ref3n
Audemars Piguet ref1
Augustine of Hippo, St ref1
Aztec calendar ref1
Babbage, Charles ref1
Bach, C.P.E. ref1
Back to the Fields (Ewan) ref1, ref2
Banchieri, Adriano ref1
Bannister, Roger ref1, ref2, ref3
Barnack, Oskar ref1
Bartók, Béla ref1n
Baselworld ref1, ref2
Batchelor, David ref1, ref2
Beatles, the ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4
Beckham, David ref1, ref2
Beethoven, Ludwig van ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6
Benedict, Kennette ref1, ref2
Benjamin, Walter ref1n, ref2
Bennett, Arnold ref1
Bernstein, Leonard ref1, ref2
Bezos, Jeff ref1
Big Ben ref1n
Bletchley Park ref1
BMW plant ref1, ref2, ref3
Bolt, Usain ref1
Book of Hours ref1
Booth, Henry ref1
Botstein, Leon ref1
Bourdin, Martial ref1
box sets ref1n
Boyhood (film) ref1
Bradshaw’s Guides ref1n
brain, the ref1, ref2
Brand, Stewart ref1
Breguet, Abraham Louis ref1n, ref2, ref3n
Breitling ref1
Bremont ref1
Bresser, Christian ref1, ref2
Breton, André ref1
British Museum ref1
Bronson, Rachel ref1
Brougham, Henry ref1
Browne, Malcolm ref1n
Bulletin of Atomic Scientists ref1
Bulova ref1
Burnett, David ref1
Bush, George ref1
Cage, John ref1n, ref2
calendars ref1, ref2, ref3
Callanan, Martin John ref1
cameras ref1, ref2
Capa, Robert ref1
Carlyle, Thomas ref1n
cars ref1, ref2
Cartier-Bresson, Henri ref1, ref2
Casio ref1
Catling, Brian ref1
Cernan, Gene ref1
Chaplin, Charlie ref1, ref2, ref3
Charles, HRH Prince of Wales ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6
and slow food ref1, ref2, ref3
Chataway, Chris ref1
Chávez, Hugo ref1
Chéroux, Clément ref1
Chez Panisse ref1, ref2
China ref1
Choudens, Jean-Anthoine ref1
Christie’s ref1
Christophe Claret ref1
Christy, Henry ref1
cinema ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5
and clocks ref1
and time ref1
Cinématon (film) ref1
civil rights movement ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5
Clay, Richard ref1, ref2
Clinton, Bill ref1
Clock, The (film) ref1
and 10 hours ref1, ref2
and art ref1
and atomic ref1
and cinema ref1
and Doomsday ref1
and flowers ref1
and Lloyd ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5
and Long Now ref1
and museums ref1
and synchronisation ref1
and workplace ref1n
Clooney, George ref1
Coe, Sebastian ref1
Colley, Mike ref1
Commodus ref1n
compact discs (CDs) ref1
Conibear, Simon ref1, ref2
Cooper, Ross ref1
Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) ref1, ref2
Courant, Gérard ref1
Covey, Stephen R. ref1
crafts movement ref1
cuckoo clocks ref1
Cukor, George ref1n
Cumbria Clock Company ref1
Cummings, Ian ref1
Cuper II, Pierre ref1
Davis, Wendy ref1, ref2n
deep time ref1
Delaney, Tim ref1, ref2
delegation ref1
Dent, Harry ref1, ref2
Diaz, Cameron ref1
Diletti, Connie ref1, ref2
disease ref1
Dismore, Andrew ref1
Dodds, Stanley ref1
Doomsday Clock ref1
Dubey & Schaldenbrand ref1
Duchy of Cornwall ref1
Dvořák, Antonín ref1
Eagleman, David ref1
Earth rotation ref1, ref2
Églantine, Fabre d’ ref1
Einstein, Albert ref1, ref2
Eisenhower, Dwight D. ref1, ref2
El Guerrouj, Hicham ref1
Elgar, Edward ref1
Elliott, Herb ref1
Emerson, Ralph Waldo ref1n
English, Nick and Giles ref1, ref2
Eno, Brian ref1
Erwitt, Elliott ref1
Ethiopia ref1
Eurostar ref1
Ewan, Ruth ref1, ref2, ref3
Faas, Horst ref1
fast food ref1, ref2
Federer, Roger ref1
Fendi ref1
fertile moments ref1
Feynman, Richard ref1
filibusters ref1, ref2, ref3
Timekeepers Page 31
