Discussion
AndrewD explores the profound concept of 'memento mori' through the lens of horology, inviting readers to consider how watches, beyond mere time-telling, serve as potent reminders of life's fleeting nature. His post delves into historical examples and prompts a philosophical discussion on the emotional resonance of mechanical timepieces.
A Latin term that roughly means ‘remember that you will die’. I find it a reminder to enjoy life to the fullest. Art is of course full of examples reminding us of our mortality.
We have touched on the topic before on PuristS: click on these links for art, books, bones and pictures, but I wanted to explore watches as a form of memento mori.
This display is at the Musee International d’Horlogerie in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, and the MIH is certainly a fitting place to contemplate the passing of time.
Mary, Queen of Scots carried a silver pocket watch in the shape of a skull. And I love the idea of clocks with automata of the Grim Reaper striking the hour gong. Public clocks were engraved with stark reminders of the effects of time: vulnerant omnes, ultima necat – they all wound, and the last kills; ultima forsan – perhaps the last hour.
Do you consider your wristwatches as an important tool to remind you of the passing of time or just a way of telling the time? Do mechanical timepieces convey the notion of memento mori better than digital timekeeping? Do perpetual calendars achieve this more emphatically? What about those skeletonized watches; more than just pretty handiwork? Or the actual skeleton designs from the likes of RM, PSM and B&R?
What are your thoughts?
Andrew
Tempus fugitI always wanted to do an engraving of a skull + the text 'Momento Mori' on the back of a Reverso...
The concept of 'Time's winged chariot drawing near' is, from a personal perspective, the fundamental underpinning of every timekeeping instrument. If funds (and time!) permit, there is an Indie commission somewhere in all of that one day. In the meantime: is this the royal watch of which you write?: Here is a modern pastiche: And here is a rather famous clock, whose hours are struck by scythe-bearing skeleton automota: As for a favourite memento mori watch? This one - think about it! Cheers, ppl
. . . a sense of poignancy; they reflect not only cosmological time, but calendrical as well.
By their very nature, I think that watches are momento mori. Think of each second just ticking away -- especially if you have a dead (Dead?!) seconds watch! That's one second you can never get back! My watches are a reminder to live life to the fullest -- you never know when you will run out of seconds. :-) Daos
regard watches as a reminder that time is fleeting .... I am not at the point where I go through the house, as the principal character in Der Rosenkavalier , stopping all the clocks because the remind me of the passage of time. My favorite memento is the Journe DS, it has Morte on the dial and in the juxtaposition of the continuously moving tourbillon and the dead seconds dial often invites reflection of how time cannot be stopped although our measurement of it is in discrete units. Best Andreas
Years ago, when I was telling a friend about my fascination with timekeeping he said: "so you don't believe in an afterlife, eh?" Took me quite by surprise, but he had a point... I do have a fascination with the passage of "my" time. Quite directly expressed in my choice of PSM's Fighting Time, in which the mighty dragons try, without success, to turn back the hands of time: The astronomic complications speak to me in a similar but different way -- reminding me of our tiny place in the vast univ
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