Take a peek under the hood and discover the mechanics behind clocks and watches. Now we've looked at the basic idea of clockwork, let's peek inside an actual clockwork machine: the clockwork smiley man in our top photo. From that point on, time started being measured with ever increasing accuracy, eventually leading us to the part of history when mechanical clocks and watches finally entered into our lives. Devices for measuring and displaying time have started their life over 5500 years ago in ancient civilizations of Babylon and Egypt. A pendulum works by converting energy back and forth, a bit like a rollercoaster ride. Curator's corner How clocks work (in 5 easy steps) Ever wondered what makes a clock tick? How Does a Clock Mechanism Work? To answer this you need to understand how a mechanical clock works and this page attempts to explain that in the simplest of terms, without jargon. Oliver Cooke, Curator of Horological Collections, unpacks the five elements that enable clocks to keep time. I'm often asked why a pendulum clock just stops for no apparent reason or why it won't run for a full 8 days anymore. In this article, we'll help you understand what makes clocks tick, so the next time you look inside one you can make sense of what's happening. Instead, they harness the energy stored in a wound spring. In fact, as you learn how a clock works, you can see how clock designers faced and solved a number of interesting problems to create accurate timekeeping devices. If you're going to try this, be careful of the mainspring: it's a tightly compressed bit of metal with a sharp edge that could whip out and hit you in the face . How does a pendulum work? How does a clockwork toy work? Unlike their digital and quartz counterparts, mechanical clocks don’t depend on a battery to keep time. How a Mechanical Clock Works. Mechanical clock technology preceded quartz movements by nearly a thousand years. Most of the mechanical clocks work on the principle of forced harmonic oscillation using a simple pendulum or a spring mass loaded system.