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On a tour of the Royal Observatory at Greenwich I saw the following display on the history of mechanical clocks:
They suggest that mechanical clocks and astronomy weren’t really combined in England until the 16th century.
Now I thought mechanical clocks came into use in the 13th century.
My question is: When did spring-driven clocks start being used?
Spring-driven clocks were invented in 15 century (as pocket clocks). Clocks had no use in astronomy in the beginning (neither weight-driven nor spring-driven) because they were not accurate enough. Accurate clocks require a pendulum or a balance, and these are 17th century inventions.
From the British Museum we can see one of the first spring driven clocks built in 1450 here:
