When talking about clocks and clockmaking, everyone thinks of the Swiss first. Everyone is WRONG! Instead, you should be thinking of, you guessed it, Serbs!

The Serbian clockmaking industry is much older than the Swiss. Serbs made their first clock at least 200 years before the Swiss got around to it!

Serbian clockmakers beat the Swiss by 2 centuries

We all know that the Swiss have been making the best clocks for centuries now, but rarely who knows that the Serbs have been in the clockmaking industry at least 200 before the Swiss.

So, who was this Serbian “Inventor of Time”?

Lazar the Serb is the holder of this fancy title. Lazar the Serb or Lazar the Hilandarian was a Serbian Orthodox monk and horologist who who invented and built the first known mechanical public clock in Russia in 1404. The Swiss formed their first guild only in 1601.

An interesting fact is that, from a chronological point of view, Lazar the Serb was either the 2nd, 3rd or 4th of about 1,200 notable European clockmakers.

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Lazar’s mechanical clock was one of the first 10 clocks of its kind in Europe.

At the request of the Grand Prince of Moscow Vasily I, Lazar invented and built a clock on the Grand Prince’s Palace in Moscow.

This Serbian clock cost as much as a sizeable nobleman’s house. It measured time for an amazing 217 years without failure, after which it was replaced with a new clock (which was destroyed not soon after in a huge fire).

Lazar’s clock was considered a real technical miracle at the time. It was the first ever spring-driven clock or striking clock, in Russia. It was also Russia’s first public clock. Another fun fact is that this clock showed the time not only in hours but by their quarters as well, and, at the time, measuring minutes wasn’t done anywhere else.

Even though this clock and the clock tower didn’t survive, a clock similar to it exists in Hilandar. It is the oldest clock in Sveta gora, and most probably in the region as well. And amazingly enough – its mechanism still works.

So, our dear Serbs, now you have no excuse whatsoever for running late!

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Lazar the HilandarianLazar the SerbSerbian clockmaking industry

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