Should the British Museum Get a Smart Watch?

LONDON – Visitors Rosetta Stone or Parthenon statues He may not realize that there is a lesser-known exhibit in the British Museum, just beyond the main entrance and a dauntingly long string of stone steps. clocks and watchesViewed by Oliver Cooke.

As curator of horology within the Museum’s British, European and Prehistoric Department, Mr. Cooke oversees the care, storage, display and preservation of a collection of over 8,000 items, of which about 200 are displayed in rooms 38 and 39. sometimes blogger On sites like the Antiquarian Horological Society and a bit of the watch world YouTube star how video hours are running (approaching 100,000 views).

In an interview by email and phone, Mr. Cooke discussed the age-old and contemporary exhibits, the museum’s debate over acquiring a smartwatch, and how the public can get their opinions on their watches. Comments have been edited and shortened.

How did you become the clock curator of the museum?

Mechanisms and instruments, including clocks and clocks, have always fascinated me. I had a civil engineering degree and worked in this field and then business systems. But around 2003-4 I was making a watch from a kit at home and a brother named Vicky saw how much I loved it and suggested I do it as a career. The seed is planted properly. After studying watch conservation at West Dean College in the south of England, a job opportunity came at the British Museum. Looks like my sister was right.

So your department in the museum follows the evolution of timekeeping?

What you see is just the tip of the iceberg. The oldest item on the screen is a astrolabe It is dated 1342. This is the oldest signed and dated European document. However, the museum houses much older watchmaking pieces from the 6th century BC, including sundials and water clocks. The newest things on display are a battery-powered kitchen wall clock and a Sony bedside radio alarm clock that we just bought in 2008.

No smart watch?

We haven’t bought a smartwatch yet. Since timekeeping can be seen as secondary to its other functions, their place in the watchmaking collection remains the subject of discussion here.

Which side are you on?

I tremble happily. Bought one for myself to play with and feel with it. These are fitness monitors and remind you of appointments, but this is not about timekeeping. As far as I can see they don’t offer anything clockologically new and that’s where I come from. But I’m sure we’ll get one because they’re called watches if nothing else. They are part of the story.

How about the first 3 of the exhibited works?

Am I really just going to pick three? here’s the glorious desk clock King Henry IV of London circa 1689 by Thomas Tompion. Made for William and Queen Mary. Install it and it will run for over a year, requiring more than 60,000 hammer blows to strike every hour.

then there is great naveAn extravagant table decoration and vessel used in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, made of precious metals in the shape of a ship, made by Hans Schlottheim in Augsburg, Germany, circa 1585. The Empire plays the organ and drums inside, and with automaton figures working on the deck, we assume – vaguely – before stopping and firing their weapons at the assembled dignitaries.

Number 3? can i suggest rolling ball clockIt was conceived by Sir William Congreve as a breakthrough in timekeeping. It’s actually pretty scary in that respect – we don’t even try to time it – but we still love it. With its zigzag ball and tiltable table, it captures the wonders of visitors like no other.

Have you ever worried that these treasures are somewhat hidden?

I expect very few visitors to come to the British Museum planning to see clocks and watches, but we are actually quite well placed, the magnificent and popular medieval and Sutton Hoo galleries. Passersby can only be drawn into our section by the gleaming, shimmering, clicking and ringing treasures – and once inside, they stay.

But there is so much more to see and study, and that’s why we have horology. study room.

Ah? Where is she?

It’s in what we call the basement, and I think it’s the best room in the museum and where we store most of the collection. All this is available for public viewing – the collection is not intended to be hidden. You can go online to find out what’s out there and then ask to see it without the glass of the gallery windows.

The room has a large center table surrounded by clocks, clocks and scientific instruments of all shapes and sizes. Sometimes things are in bits, but we wouldn’t leave it that way for long to minimize the risk of losing bits. And we always have a sundial in the middle of the table.

Visitors can also bring their watches and clocks, and we will do our best to tell them all we can about them. Access by appointment only museum website.

You spend your day surrounded by clocks. do you wear a watch

I almost always have a watch on my wrist. Actually, I have a big bowl full of watches. Each has a reason to be there, but most are humble. I have the privilege of being able to spend most of my life working with the collection here, and so I don’t feel the need to own fine watches, it would indeed be futile to try to match them.

Every morning I choose one to wear to fit the next day. Maybe it’s my Longines VHP of the late 1990s that I’m feeling sharp. Maybe my only fifty hours for a weekend (when five minutes don’t matter).

But my essential is a “beater” Casio ProTrek. It’s solar powered so I know it will work. It’s waterproof and tough as nails.

Which one are you wearing now?

I’ve been interested in high precision quartz watches lately, and the watch I’m wearing right now, VHP, uses temperature compensation and is rated to keep time within 10 seconds per year. In this context, a standard, uncompensated quartz watch can gain or lose 180 seconds in that time; a good mechanical watch, let’s say 1,500 seconds.

Timekeeping has, of course, long been a major concern of watchmaking development, and temperature-balanced quartz represents the pinnacle for watches in this context. However, very few manufacturers produce them anymore, probably because none of us really needs this level of precision in our daily lives.