Luxury watches are a timeless gift that is guaranteed to please. These relatively small items are an absolute essential in the running of today's life and we have much to thank the Swiss for. After all, it is the Swiss that have been at the forefront of all the top inventions and advancements in precision time keeping and the Swiss that have provided us with luxury watches fit for a king.



All the patents of any note, and there are thousands, that have any bearing on the making of luxury watches, belong to the Swiss. It is their dedication to the keeping of accurate time that has seen the dawn of inventions that far surpass anything the rest of the world has achieved in the arena of horology.

However, luxury watchmakers the Swiss may be but the keeping of world time itself comes down to the British. Greenwich Mean (or Meridian) Time is the system that sets accurate time for the whole world. All time zones are listed as GMT followed by a plus or minus to determine their own country's time.

Greenwich is famous for many things, including being the birthplace of Henry VIII and his daughters, Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth I. More importantly for the world, from here, all time is set and seen as 100% accurate. The time is set at the Royal Observatory which is, twice every day, in touch with one of the world's most famous clocks, Big Ben.

Big Ben is actually the name of the bell in the tower but say Big Ben to anyone and they will immediately picture the famous clock. George Airy, the Royal Astronomer of the day, was hired in 1844 to design the clock in this tower and his mission was complete by 1854, although it had to wait a further four years for the tower that would house it to be completed.

Airy specified that the clock should be accurate to within one second per day and that it should report its performance by telegraph to the Royal Observatory twice a day. Therefore, Big Ben and Greenwich Mean Time are constantly in agreement with each other.

Other famous clocks around the world that also hold fast by GMT include the huge clock that hangs in Union Station in Kansas City. Six and a half feet wide and three feet thick, this clock weighs in at half a ton and has been the meeting point for many a romantic rendezvous.

'Meet me under the clock' became a saying that needed no other explanation from 1914 onwards. People have even been married under this clock in a romantic gesture that harks back to the couple's first meeting. It has also become a meeting place for the local residents to see in the New Year.

Moving forwards into the future of clocks, prototypes are under construction for the 'Long Now' clock. It is intended that the clock will make people think about the passing of time in a new way, given such a crazy pace of life that we live now.

It will tick once a year, with a century hand that will move once every 100 years. It is hoped the design will run for 10,000 years and has to be able to withstand climate changes. Obviously, the designers are putting a lot of thought into it as they have secured a mountain top location for the finished article. Bring on the global warming, this clock will not fail through flooding.

The Long Now clock will keep time by the passing of the sun at noon each day and will present a challenge to all future horologists as to how to keep it accurate without stopping it to make adjustments.

It seems whether you're into astronomy, affected by world time zones or just like the look of a luxury watch, time is not just a passing interest to mankind.