Hour clock
An hour clock (long form since the 18th century, from the 15th century to Stunduhr ) is a watch that only full hours displays.
Hour clocks were used in monasteries to drive a mechanical instrument (beater stick or hour bell ) with which monks could be awakened or called to pray the hours . The hour clock as a wheel clock was the successor of the hour glass or the hourglass as well as the water clock.
Early one-hand clocks as tower clocks struck the hour with a bell. Only with the further development of the wheel clocks and their ever increasing accuracy did the hour clocks develop into quarter-hour clocks.
literature
- Hour clock. In: Jacob Grimm, Wilhelm Grimm: German Dictionary. Hirzel, Leipzig 1854–1861, Volume 20, Column 536.