The earliest clocks were simply ways of keeping track of time using the elements. The sundial did this, as well as a clock created in ancient Greece often ascribed to Plato, that used water dripping from a bowl. The Romans later took this clock and claimed it for their own, calling it a Horologium.

The first mechanical clocks were run using the falling of weights. When they started to become mechanical, they were called Clockes, Latin for bell. This was because they kept time by sounding a bell at the hour. When they invented a clock that could tell time visually, they named it a watch. This is an obvious pun on the word watch, both in its