Farewell to the analogue clock? Telephone booths are a thing of the past, many advertising pillars have been dismantled. Are the good old pointer clocks now also disappearing from the cityscape and our lives? Some have the impression that public clocks are becoming fewer, that time is being privatized, so to speak. Why also large hand clocks when everyone has a mobile phone with an exact digital clock? But is the impression correct? What do time researchers and companies dealing with watches say? It seems about time to tell a zeitgeist story about watches – and time itself.
“Who turned the clock? Is it really that late?”: Today’s children often hardly understand the song composed by Fred Strittmatter for the cartoon series about Paulchen Panther, which was broadcast on German television 50 years ago. turn a clock? Why rotate? In the computer age, the dial is often alien to the little ones.
Is there a “clock twilight”?
Unlike television in the past, TV news such as the “Tagesschau” have long been using a digital time display. The ZDF “heute” program introduced this comparatively late – only in the summer of 2021.
“Many have the impression that there are fewer hand clocks in public space than there used to be,” says urban researcher Dietrich Henckel, chairman of the German Society for Time Politics. The time researcher Karlheinz Geißler, who died in 2022, even diagnosed a “clock twilight” in his book “The clock can go”, says Henckel. “The everyday observation of fewer watches seems to be confirmed by the fact that fewer people wear classic wristwatches,” says the professor emeritus at the Technical University (TU) Berlin.
On the other hand, the trend towards expensive wristwatches as a status symbol is unbroken in certain circles. Luxury watches often appear in rap songs. What rhymes well with Rolex? Clearly: the little word sex.
Very different developments are superimposed today, says Henckel. “On the one hand, more and more people are trying not to let the beat of the clock dictate their behavior and to be more considerate of their own rhythms. On the other hand, the time and its normative pressure are omnipresent.”
According to Henckel, the question is: “Why do we still need public clocks when every mobile phone, pedometer on the wrist and almost every public or private screen constantly shows the time?”
The Federal Statistical Office has calculated that around 385,200 watches worth 287 million euros were produced nationwide in 2021. That is 16.3 percent less than ten years earlier. This includes wristwatches, wall clocks, cuckoo clocks or alarm clocks – with pointers or with digital displays. The statisticians also noted that between 2011 and 2021, more clocks were made.
Clocks are fixed points in the cityscape
According to its own statements, the large outdoor advertising company Ströer still operates many clocks. Fluctuation is in the per thousand range. Accordingly, watches still have their place in public life. “Several thousand public clocks are fixed points in the cityscape and guarantee an attention-grabbing function through their placement in the inner cities,” says a company spokesman. “Despite smartphones, the clocks offer passers-by, travelers and commuters reliable orientation and often also have a high emotional value.”
Deutsche Bahn also emphasizes that they still maintain a large number of clocks. “DB operates around 17,000 as a service for its customers in the stations,” says a spokeswoman. “These station clocks include single-sided, double-sided, historical and modern.”
Digital time displays are also on the rise on the railways. “At more than 4,400 mainly smaller stations, 7,500 dynamic signage displays (DSA) are installed, which provide information about the next journey or timetable deviations.” Their number has grown significantly over the past ten years. “The DSA rollout was in full swing in 2013. At that time there were around 20 percent fewer watches in stock.”
Urban and time researcher Henckel says that the common order of our complex society can only be managed with a high degree of punctuality and precise coordination of times. Think, for example, of computer stock exchange trading with extremely precise time coordination, but also of train traffic and the annoyance when the Deutsche Bahn is not punctual and everything gets out of step.
Many experienced contradictory things in everyday life with the booming delivery services, Henckel reasoned. “On-time deliveries are promised. When that succeeds, it often involves double-parking the delivery vehicles, which can seriously mess up the schedules of bystanders. Or the tracking suggests you can estimate the delivery time, only to find out that it’s hourly is adjusted.”
Verein Deutsche Gesellschaft für Zeitpolitik tip Berlin: Special timepieces that characterize the cityscape Karlheinz Geißler
