[Brandon]

I can't recall any fantasy series where a character has referred to a clock or specific times. What is technological achievment of clocks in fantasy? Would it be out of place for a fantasy character to say "Meet me at 2:00 pm"? It seems that if you were to equate the general fantasy period with a general period in real history, they would have been advanced enough to be making grandfather clocks, or some type of clock that doesn't depend on electricity...Anyone with some insight on this?

[estranghero]

Well, I've always found it jarring whenever a fantasy character (unless it's in an contemporary urban setting)to say 'We'll meet in two minutes.' How can they say a minute if you're in a medieval period and they don't have clocks then? Same thing with 'Meet me at 2:00 pm' and the setting is, say, Renaissance.

It's like getting a kick in the head. Uggh. A little checking, please.

[Bardos]

If the clocks are widely used in that fantasy world, then it would be ok, I guess. Clocks CAN be made with just mechanics (wheels turning, etc); and don't forget sun-clocks, who count time by the angle of the sun.

Thought, clocks are usually not widely used in fantasy. IMHO, it's ok to put "an ancient mechanic clock on the wall of the castle" or "a sun clock in the middle of the great garden", but it's not ok to say "I'll meet you in two minutes"; better say "I'll meet you in a short while".

Also, Steven Erikson counts time with bells (one bell, two bells, etc). Thought, I can't understand how much time a bell is; so that annoys me a bit.

[Barbarossa]

Actually many fantasy worlds have a technological standard that would make clocks or even watches feasable, but noone seems to use them.
The Romans had fairly accurate water clocks, even with alarms. Standing clocks using weights were known since the 14th century, the first pocket watch produced in Nürnberg in the 1460s. That's about the technological standard of at least Feist's and Jordan's worlds, Marco is even farther.

[Asraloth]

what about hourglasses? perhaps they could have minuteglasses in the world in question, it doesn't really bother me when i look at it that way.

[ChrisW]

Jordan does have clocks in his books.

[milamber_reborn]

Feist has time-pieces (like at the Coffee House in Rise Of A Merchant Prince) or some such thing, I think Jordan mentioned one too.

Characters can say "meet me in two minutes", it just means approximately two minutes.

On the other hand, when were minutes and seconds and hours first created?

[Mithfânion]

I can't say I've ever felt the need to know about the precise time in a Fantasy world. "we'll meet here by this tree in a while" is fine with me http://www.sffworld.com/ubb/wink.gif

[Steerpike]

Certainly there were divisions of the day into something like our hours during ancient times. The Egyptians invented the sundial and the Greeks invented a water clock a few centuries before Christ but this was mainly used to tell time at night. http://library.scar.utoronto.ca/ClassicsC42/Gomes/wat.html

[Lani]

Most of the time, the author can go through the book without referring to a specific time, i.e. 2:00PM; however, since clocks would be quite possible in the fantasy settings it could be nice to have some time, but I would really think it's better if the fantasy world would use its own timing unit. Of course the easy would be to use the modern units of time with another name, so the reader would not become lost.