Chronometry - Deutsches Museum

From the very earliest methods for measuring time such as water clocks and hourglasses to cutting-edge examples of the art of clock-making, the story of time is told here.

Exhibition closed

The second half of the museum is currently being renovated, which is why this area has been closed since July 2022. The modernisation of the exhibition is scheduled to be completed in 2028, the 125th anniversary of the museum's founding.

View inside the Chronometry exhibition. Photo: Deutsches Museum | Christian Illing

What is time?

The question of what time actually is and whether it exists at all has not yet been conclusively answered. Nevertheless, dealing with time in our everyday lives, in sport, in technology and in many areas of the natural sciences is a matter of course and seems completely straightforward. In most cases, the measurement of time appears to be a clear task that can easily be performed with a watch. Problems apparently only emerge when we think more deeply about the phenomenon of time.

“What then is time? If no one asks me, I know what it is. If I wish to explain it to him who asks, I do not know.”

Augustine of Hippo, Roman bishop and philosopher, 4th century AD

The exhibition gives an insight into the variety of clocks that have been created over the centuries. Different functional principles have supplanted one another, always with the goal of measuring regular natural processes accurately. For example the sundial, whose time display is directly dependent on the apparent movement of the star that is at the centre of our solar system. The pulse generators in clocks have changed over time, becoming increasingly accurate. Starting with the pendulum and the coil spring, we now rely on the oscillation of quartz or the measurement of microwaves that are emitted by atoms.

“What really matters anyway is not how we define time, but how we measure it.”

Richard Feynman, American physicist, 1963

Inside the chronometry exhibition

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Ceramic water clock. — Water clock in the Chronometry exhibition. Photo: Deutsches Museum | Christian Illing

Art clock that chimes the hour and the quarter hour. — The various displays on the five faces and the rotating globe put every time in the context of the movement of the universe. As with many other clocks, the original scales were later replaced by a front pendulum. Photo: Deutsches Museum

Clockwork mechanism of an art clock from 1592. — Clockwork mechanism of an art clock that chimes the hour and the quarter hour, 1592. Photo: Deutsches Museum

Pressure chronograph. — Pressure chronograph for the sidereal time and the apparent solar time. Photo: Deutsches Museum | Christian Illing

Experience Chronometry live

Sundial Garden

21 sundials set up alongside one another: They work according to different principles and can be viewed and compared at close quarters in the open.

Virtual Tour
Discover the exhibition in 360°: click the mouse or touch the screen to look around in any direction. The virtual tour also includes text, films and audio information for many of the exhibits.
Virtual Tour through the Chronometry Exhibition

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Deutsches Museum App
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Facts

220m² exhibition area
The exhibition is on Level 3.

Exact time

**Quarzuhr mit Elektronenröhren "CF Qu" von Rohde & Schwarz**
From: Physikalisch-Technisches Entwicklungslabor Dr. L. Rohde & Dr. H. Schwarz
Date: 1938

**Cäsium-Atomuhr "Oscillatom B 5000-20" von Oscilloquartz**
From: Oscilloquartz
Date: 1972

**Präzisionspendeluhr (Nebenuhr) Typ A1, No. 98 von Sigmund Riefler**
From: Riefler, Sigmund
Date: 1905

**Präzisionspendeluhr (Hauptuhr) Typ D mit Glastank, No. 98 von Sigmund Riefler**
From: Riefler, Sigmund
Date: 1905

**Druckchronograph nach J. v. d. Heide**
From: H. Wetzer
Date: 1953

**Astronomische Standuhr mit Kompensationspendel von Joseph Mahler**
From: Mahler, Franz Joseph
Date: 1828

**Kathodenstrahloszillograf für Hochspannung mit Eichsender**
From: Technische Hochschule <Aachen>
Date: 1951

**Präzisionspendeluhr Sattler Mod. 1958**
From: Erwin Sattler
Date: 1998

**Chronoskop nach Hipp**
From: Peyer Favarger & Cie.; Hipp, Matthäus; Peyer Favarger & Cie.
Date: Ende 19. Jh.

**Präzisionspendeluhr Nr. 1 von S. Riefler**
From: Riefler, Sigmund
Date: 1890

Any questions?

Dr. Christian Sicka
Kurator
Abteilung Astronomie, Planetarium, Atomphysik, Zeitmessung
Deutsches Museum
80306 München
Telephone +49 89 2179 350
Fax +49 89 2179 99350
Email c.sicka@deutsches-museum.de

Cornelia Schubert
Assistance to department heads, main department heads and curators
Susanne Schmölz
Assistance to department heads, main department heads and curators

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