Clocks and watches, Room 38

If a mechanism is moving, take a moment to follow one part before trying to understand the whole clock. Rooms 38 and 39 bring together clocks and watches of different sizes and purposes, from large public timekeepers to objects carried on a person. The combined display includes the Cassiobury Park turret clock and a rolling-ball clock. Their scale and mechanisms offer different ways to measure passing time. Marine timekeeping adds another purpose, where accurate measurement mattered to navigation. Treat the two rooms as one gallery group as you explore. A dial gives a readable result, while the moving parts behind it do the work of keeping that result steady. Compare a mechanism you can watch with a small watch whose workings have to fit into a much tighter space.