Deconstructing Product Design

Museum Watch

Nathan George Horwitt, 1947

1. A few thousand years ago, somebody put a stick in the ground and watched its shadow move with the apparent motion of the sun. This observation would ultimately lead to sundials, which enabled a gross measure of time. The number twelve held special significance to the peoples of that period, due to the fact there are twelve lunar cycles per year, and the number twelve became the standard number of divisions on sundials for the lighted day. The notion of sixty minutes in an hour and sixty seconds in a minute was borrowed from the base-sixty Sumerian number system. The sundial, however, would never be able to tell time at night. Timekeeping would need to become self-driven to overcome the darkness. ...