Mechanical clocks begin appearing in European churches

1275

The earliest weight-driven mechanical clocks, using verge escapements to regulate their motion, appeared in English and Italian cathedral towers. Crude and inaccurate, losing or gaining fifteen minutes a day, they nonetheless began the revolution that would synchronize European life and eventually commodify time itself. The regular tolling of church bells, now mechanically driven rather than manually rung, imposed a new discipline on medieval urban life.