Electronic chronometer

Ship clocks, also known as chronometers, were used to adjust life on a ship but were primarily used for navigation. For this reason, they had to be resistant to temperature changes, and the sealed casing had to protect against moisture. The first clock with a measurement error of fewer than 2 minutes, which in navigation corresponds to half a degree of longitude, was built in 1759 by John Harrison (1693-1776), a carpenter and self-taught watchmaker. His H-4 chronometer weighed almost one and a half kilograms. With an accuracy of one second per month, it allowed the longitude at sea to be determined very precisely. The featured timepiece, the Chronostat IV model from Golay, exemplifies the development of these devices in the 1960s, when quartz technology began to be used. The previously spring-driven balance mechanism was replaced by a battery-powered quartz resonator. The Chronostat IV was developed in collaboration with one of Switzerland's oldest watchmaking companies, Longines, to meet the requirements of the French Navy's hydrological institute, which is why some pieces bear the institution's engraved abbreviation, SHOM, under the manufacturer's logo and name. Now superseded by electronic clocks and satellite navigation, ship clocks were mainly placed in the chartrooms, on the deck, or, later on, in the operations room, in the engine room and on the piers. Leszek Kocela