Christiaan Huygens

Netherlands, 1629-95

Mathematician, physicist and astronomer Christiaan Huygens was motivated to improve timekeeping accuracy because it was required for his astronomical work. He invented the pendulum clock after adapting Galileo’s Law, which stated that the period of a pendulum’s swing was independent from the amplitude of the swing. In either 1656 or 1657, he patented the first working pendulum clock, and later developed a balance spring that served as a watch regulator. Huygens’ inventions greatly improved the accuracy of clocks and watches, and they are widely regarded as a watershed moment in the history of timekeeping.