Time has been mechanized already by sundials. These nails and chains that are banged in and put around time have been increasingly refined to accumulate in the advent of the atomic clock. So-called Natural units were even invented. Without mechanized time the world would have looked very different. Maybe we have some kind of marshmallow minds. Maybe we could better wear aikhornnuts on our wrists as Krznaric puts it.
When were the first mechanized timekeepers used in science? Was Galileo the first one? Did this use further science a lot? So newer means and more precise keepers could be constructed?