What happened to the time before these complicated clocks and tricky timepieces became commonplace, when telling time was effortless? A glance at the wrist or on the wall yielded the correct time in an instant.
The timepieces in this slideshow are anything but easy. They require you to analyze, compute, shoot a bulls-eye, and exercise. One even requires you to disarm a bomb! There are number-free and faceless clocks with nary a minute hand, hour hand or digital display to spare. Even the simplest clocks in this cluster must still be tilted, poked or prodded to tell the time of day.