A watch is a powerful and important piece that also fulfills a vital function. Throughout most of human history, the development of precise and automatic timekeeping devices was at the forefront of technology and was contributed by some of the greatest minds ever.

Today, many of us take watches for granted. Based on what is now very simple technology, watches are relatively inexpensive and you can buy a decent watch for just a few dollars. However, that clock that you hang so carelessly on the wall has a much deeper meaning, it has a meaning that extends in time, to affect the subtlest nuances of your life.

To appreciate the watch, imagine that it is gone. With a reduced faculty, you are suddenly forced to depend on nature to know what time it is. How will you keep your appointments, when is your next meeting, and what happens when you have a cloudy day?

But that’s just the most obtuse of the downsides. Clocks are in our lives more insidiously than most can imagine. An accurate watch is the backbone of all navigation technology. If you can’t tell exactly how long it’s been, you can’t tell how fast you’re going, or even sometimes where you are. The watch keeps pace, giving us an accurate reading of how much is happening and how long it took.

Without the watch, Columbus would have found it impossible to make his journey across the ocean. Without clocks, the satellites would not know where they are and would collide with each other. Without clocks, you couldn’t even have a speedometer in your car, because “miles per hour” requires knowing how long an hour is.

Even more, consider the psychological impact of watches. Without that ticking clock, it would be a lot easier to get more sleep in the morning. In fact, you would feel less guilty about sleeping through the day, because you would never know exactly how much time has passed.

If you think people are late for appointments now, imagine if you couldn’t call them. Without a watch, you would never know how late they arrived. Sure you could estimate by the sun, but using this method there are only 3 hours of the day that you can be sure of, noon, sunrise and sunset. That leaves a lot of leeway for someone prone to being late.

In this way, the watch is like a foreman. It stands on our shoulders, whipping us with a constant lash from second to second that is slowly slipping away. It reminds us of this and our own time, and how precious it is. In this way, the clock really affects everything in our lives. Color our world; it is the background rhythm against which everything moves. The clock is intrinsic to our world and the way we behave every day.